Search Results for: Graduation Rates

It was so troubling to sit and listen to New Rochelle High School Principal — a man with a long track record of fabricating data files in SED reports — that I did not get around to posting my notes on his remarks so I am going to add them to the bottom of that post and add them here as a seperate post so readers do not miss them.

Consider this an update to this previous post: New Rochelle Board of Education “Solves” Declining Minority Graduation Rates the Old Fashioned Way — Ignoring Them

Some thoughts and questions…

1. If a student earns a grade below 65 but is close to getting a 65 (like a 62, 63, or 64) does the school “round up” those scores? In other words, does a passing grade really mean they got a 65 or better is “close to” 65 the standard? See if you can get Don Conetta on record.

2. Since Mr. Conetta said he was able to forecast the graduation rates for next year, ask him “What do you forecast the impact on next year’s certified graduation will have on the number of students walking in the June graduation ceremony next year?

3. Can the graduation rate data and the 3-8 ELA and Math Data be normalized over time so that the community can make apples-to-apples comprisons?

4.

On May 4th, the New Rochelle School Board will present to the community a plan for action on how to deal with our school crisis of low performance when it comes to low high school graduation. As you know, our schools are failing our children of color. Their four-year graduation rates are incompatible to our claimed success or diversity so often quoted by our community leaders. When you have 2,000 children or rather 2/3’s of children expecting NOT to graduate in four years it becomes a testament to lack of vision, leadership and desire to come up with a better solution. To deny that this is a problem, which our school leaders have, is also a defining moment of who they are.
Come on May 4th and ask questions. See if they roll out the same answers as before.
We just received results of our 2009 Regents exams – check these numbers out. Do you feel good about these numbers?NY State Dept of Education Regents Test results for 2009

Albert Leonard Middle School
Living Environment 151 Students Tested – 84% received a score over 85%
Algebra 154 Students Tested – 66% received a score over 85%

Isaac Young Middle School
Living Environment 87 Students Tested – 53% received a score of over 85%

New York State Chancellor announcement of New Graduation Results Released for High Schools Statewide

Statewide, almost 72 percent of the students who started 9th grade in 2005 had graduated after 4 years, by June 2009. This is compared with a 66 percent graduation rate for students who started 9th grade in 2001.

Graduation Rate Data

According to The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University and the Urban Institute, half or more of Black, Hispanic and Native American youth in the United States are getting left behind before high school graduation in a “hidden crisis” that is obscured by U.S. Department of Education regulations issued under the “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB) Act that “allow schools, districts, and states to all but eliminate graduation rate accountability for minority subgroups.

If high school dropout rates were reduced by half, graduates in the United States would likely have bought homes worth $10.5 billion more than what they would likely spend without a diploma; supported 30,000 additional jobs and increased the gross regional product in these areas by a total of up to $5.3 billion by the time these new graduates reach the midpoint of their careers, according to a study release today by the Alliance for Excellent Education

The Economic Benefits From Halving The Dropout Rate: A Boom To Businesses In The Nation’s Largest Metropolitan Areas

Few people realize the impact that high school dropouts have on a community’s economic, social, and civic health. Business owners and residents—in particular, those without school-aged children—may not be aware that they have much at stake in the success of their local high schools.

On Wednesday, June 15, 2009 over 600 New Rochelle High School students will march in a graduation ceremony and receive — an empty folder. One of the school district’s “dirty little secrets” is that none of the students marching tomorrow will actually receive a diploma because many of the students marching will not have earned a diploma but are being allowed to participate in the graduation ceremony anyway. Rather than damage their self-esteem or cause them to feel less important than those who actually earned a diploma, they are being allowed to participate based on a “promise” that at some point after June they will complete missing courses and pass required state exams. Based on the New York State Report Cards, no one is keeping track of how many students march in the graduation and then failed to make good this “promise”.

UPDATE: Sources tell Talk of the Sound the actual graduation rate was closer to 57.5% than 77.5%. About 500 students actually met criteria for the certified graduation but 676 students were given diplomas.

The graduation rate in 2009 was 66%, in 2010 it was 69% so the 12% jump from 69% to 77.5% represents an implausible scenario where the graduation rose dramatically at the same time the standards were being raised dramatically. By all measures, the opposite should have been the case.

The Board of Education under Sara Richmond’s leadership achieved a wonderful thing for New Rochelle in requiring a certified graduation. That achievement was badly marred by the Board’s failure to keep close tabs on what Conetta was up to. They never asked just what Conetta meant by “credit recovery”. They never demanded a copy of a written policy, never asked how it was to be applied, never asked how many students were expected to be part o this program or the impact on graduation rates. It appears now that as many as 180 students may have received diplomas they did not earn or about 27% of those who walked in the ceremony yesterday.

In the newspaper business, the article by Barb Grondin Francella entitled Richard Organisciak: Advocate, Juggler, ‘Closer’ is what is known as a beat-sweetener.

Tim Noah at Slate.com sums it nicely:

A beat-sweetener (some prefer the term source-greaser) is a gratuitously flattering profile that a reporter writes about a government official in the hope that it will encourage (or, at the very least, not impede) that reporter’s access to the official in question.

Not a word of the many failures under Organisciak’s watch — the decline in graduation rates, declining test scores, the horrendous health inspection reports, the corruption in the buildings and grounds department — just a syrupy, uncritical portrayal of Organisciak that would make Jack Shafer roll his eyes.

Apparently the biggest worry facing Organisciak is “dealing with issues as varied as problems with afternoon traffic at William B. Ward school to concerns about using nonrecyclable foam cafeteria trays.” Wow! Really?

As New Rochelle school officials and PTA groups continue to make the, so far, unsubstantiated boast that 95% of New Rochelle High School graduates are accepted into college, New York City is taking a serious look at whether they are preparing their students for college.

NYT: Schools Are Given a Grade on How Graduates Do

In most school systems, what happens to students…after they obtain their diplomas is of little concern. But the New York City Department of Education acknowledges that despite rising graduation rates, many graduates lack basic skills, and it is trying to do something about it.

Read what they are going here.

Meanwhile, the New Rochelle Board of Education continues to duck questions as to the basis for claims (trotted out every May for school elections) that 95% or 96% of NRHS graduates go on to college. Considering that just 66% of students even graduate on time and that the SIX YEAR graduation rate is below 90% it is hard to imagine how such a high percentage of students who struggle to even leave high school then apply to college let alone get accepted, attend or stick around long enough to get a degree.

In his first State of the State address, New York Governor David Patterson focused on New York public schools and singled out the failure of public schools to graduate minority students, an issue raised at the recent school board meeting.

Another way we can protect our children and build a brighter future is to ensure that every child in New York receives a good education.
This current crisis should teach us that the only way to restore our long-term economic competitiveness is to build the world’s best system of education.

We can do it, but we have a long way to go. Today, three in ten New Yorkers do not graduate from high school and don’t even have a chance to go to college. The numbers are even worse for children of color and children from low-income families.

We must do better. We must ensure that every child is prepared for college — and that every child can afford to go.

Innovative educational models have raised high school graduation rates and prepared our most disadvantaged children for college. This year, through public-private partnerships, we should work together to establish new early college high schools throughout New York. And we must expand the SAY YES program, which offers free college tuition to students who meet educational standards.