  Jonesy Member Username: Jonesy Post Number: 500 Registered: 07-2005 |
Detroit schools grad rate: 32% http://www.detnews.com/apps/pb cs.dll/article?AID=/20080225/S CHOOLS/802250382 DPS official questions MSU study that uses new national tracking methodState to adopt MSU's new tracking method Karen Bouffard / The Detroit News Just 31.9 percent of Detroit students graduate in four years, according to the first major study in Michigan conducted using a method now mandated by the federal government. The study, by the Education Policy Center at Michigan State University, looked at how many ninth-graders in Detroit and the state as a whole left high school with diplomas after four years. It portends what may happen in August, when Michigan releases the graduation rate for the class of 2007, which will be calculated for the first time using the same formula used by MSU researchers. Detroit Public Schools officials would not comment on the study, which has not yet been published, but School Board President Carla Scott said she doesn't believe the results, which echo the findings of an Education Week study released in June. That study found fewer than a quarter of ninth-graders who entered Detroit Public Schools in 1999 graduated four years later. According to the state Department of Education, the district's graduation rate for the same time frame was 66.8 percent. "It doesn't seem credible to me," Scott said. "You can make data for anything you want it to say, but (they) should have factored in the reasons why they left. "If you look at children moving out of the city, of course you're going to see a decrease. There are all kinds of reasons why children leave the city, that doesn't mean they're dropouts." Statewide, the new study found the graduation rate in 2006 -- 72.9 percent -- was significantly lower than the state Department of Education's 85.7 percent graduation rate for the class of 2006, the last year for which data is available. Sharif Shakrani, director of the Education Policy Center at MSU and the author of the study, said researchers looked at the total number of freshmen in Detroit Public Schools in fall 2002 and then in each subsequent year through June 2006. They took into account the number who moved to charter schools or to other districts in the state, where records were available. There was no way to determine how many of the children moved out of state or transferred to private schools without a uniform identification system to track students, Shakrani said. It also didn't take into account students who graduate in five years. Eight states already have such a system, which is under development in Michigan. The study found an even lower graduation rate for boys enrolled in Detroit Public Schools: just 25 percent, compared with 39 percent of girls -- a discrepancy that mirrors national trends. Jack Jennings, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Center on Education Policy, a nonprofit research and advocacy group, said large urban areas across the country have reported "shockingly low" graduation rates when calculated with the method used by MSU researchers. The counting method, called cohort, is required under No Child Left Behind. "What you're seeing in Detroit is the same type of thing you're seeing in Chicago, (Los Angeles), Houston and all big cities," Jennings said. "If the general finding is that the graduation rate in inner city schools isn't very high, they're correct -- and it's something to be legitimately concerned about. It's a warning sign that maybe the situation is worse than we thought, and maybe we should do something about it." Leslee Fritz, spokeswoman for the state Budget Office, Center for Educational Performance Initiatives, which collects and maintains all education-related data in the state, said the cohort method is more accurate than the method previously used in Michigan because it accounts for students who may have left the state's public schools before their senior year. Up until this year, the state calculated the rate by comparing the number of seniors in the fall to the number that graduate the following June. "We agree that the four-year-cohort figure will be a more accurate measure because it will give you a better sense of how many drop out throughout the four years, rather than just at the end of it," Fritz said. "This will be the first year we look at the number who enter as freshmen, and the number who graduate four years later," Fritz said. "Certainly, we've said that the expectation is that when you take that wider four-year view a number of districts will show a lower rate, and that the statewide graduation will go down as a result." Gov. Jennifer Granholm has proposed increasing the dropout age to 18 and creating smaller high schools to boost graduation rates. "Governor Granholm recognizes that we must provide a quality education for every child and provide them with the tools they need to be successful in the 21st century," Liz Boyd, Granholm's press secretary, said in a statement. "She has called on education leaders and lawmakers from both parties to join her in solving the dropout problem." State Department of Education spokeswoman Jan Ellis said Michigan this year began assigning identity codes to students, which will eventually be used to track them as they move through the educational system and on into college. But coordinating such a system with colleges will take time, she said. Still, MSU's Shakrani believes the data from his study is the most accurate to date for quantifying the scope of the dropout problem in Detroit and statewide. Shakrani's study found that students are most likely to graduate once they start their senior year. Students have the highest likelihood of dropping out between ninth and 10th grade. "The implication is that we need to be able to predict which students have a potential to drop out and try to do something about it early," Shakrani said. "When we see students aren't interested in school, the reason most likely is because the instruction is above their heads, so we need to improve their education at the middle school level. "We need to make sure that the educational system is aware of the potential dropouts … and to see what we can do to prevent them from dropping out." You can reach Karen Bouffard at (734) 462-2206 or kbouffard@detnews.com. | ||
Danny Member Username: Danny Post Number: 7150 Registered: 02-2004 |
Detroit Public Schools are a mostly African Centered culturally biased educational system. More of African History and less of European and white man's American History and mathematics. Plus DPS staff and administrators have to deal with lots of at risk kids from broken homes where drugs, crime, domestic violence and gangs are rampant. DPS will be looking forward to more students dropping out, moving to the suburban school or going to those EVIL charter schools. | ||
Lefty2 Member Username: Lefty2 Post Number: 1258 Registered: 07-2007 |
They can't even track students properly, that's how bad the situation is. | ||
Swingline Member Username: Swingline Post Number: 1034 Registered: 11-2003 |
Absolutely no one has reliable numbers for Detroit. Detroit is unique for its combination of mushrooming charter school enrollment, dozens of adjacent or nearby "schools of choice" school districts, and simple population out-migration. These factors bleed thousands of students from each grade in Detroit every year. Most of these lost students increase Detroit's "dropout" rate under the methodologies of most studies, including this most recent one. Given these factors and the fact that no study is based on the tracking of graduation results by individual student, any graduation rate number published for Detroit is no more than a glorified guess. Certainly the graduation rate is atrocious when compared to any mostly-white district that has double the household income of Detroit, but no one really knows what percentage of Detroit freshman graduate (from any school in any district) in four years. | ||
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard Post Number: 5368 Registered: 10-2004 |
Another point: The current system for determining the dropout rate relies on having a zero dropout rate before the ninth grade. Clearly, there are dropouts from the eighth grade or earlier that don't even get factored into the current system. The bottom line: The DPS dropout rate is greater than 68%. | ||
Irish_mafia Member Username: Irish_mafia Post Number: 1208 Registered: 10-2003 |
How much money goes to the DPS? How many students fall under their responsibility? | ||
Hockey_player Member Username: Hockey_player Post Number: 409 Registered: 10-2003 |
Funny how study after study shows the same thing essentially, and every time apologists from the school board to armchair observers go after the messenger by denying the validity of the results. Even under the sunniest projection what's not addressed is the reality that a lot of the kids who do graduate are borderline dimwits who can barely put a sentence together, as anyone who routinely deals with graduates from outside the handful of elite schools will confirm. The school system in the city is a colossal disaster from whichever perspective one chooses to look at it. | ||
Nainrouge Member Username: Nainrouge Post Number: 837 Registered: 05-2006 |
The statistics aren't reliable. I don't see how pointing that out makes you an apologist. DPS is working on a new system that will give more accurate results through better tracking. This is not to say that the school system doesn't have serious problems, but the methodology that MSU used is so flawed that it is pretty useless. | ||
Ltorivia485 Member Username: Ltorivia485 Post Number: 2994 Registered: 08-2004 |
Detroit Public Schools has a very transient student population. You have parents who pull their kids out to attend suburban, charter or private schools and wound up enrolling their kids back into DPS schools AFTER the count deadline. You also have many at-risk (special needs) students who are not receiving the quality education they deserve (special education teachers has one of the highest turnover rates). There really are no reliable statistics out there. | ||
Goat Member Username: Goat Post Number: 10124 Registered: 10-2003 |
It is easier to make a quick buck selling dope than it is to go to a post secondary school that: 1) you can't afford to go to. 2) too illiterate to even finish high school let alone attend a post secondary school. and of course, 3)parents that blame the system instead of looking into a mirror. | ||
Nainrouge Member Username: Nainrouge Post Number: 841 Registered: 05-2006 |
Children shouldn't be made to suffer for their parent's behaviour. | ||
Johnlodge Member Username: Johnlodge Post Number: 5316 Registered: 10-2003 |
Trainman, that was a stretch, even for you. (Message edited by johnlodge on February 25, 2008) | ||
Rax Member Username: Rax Post Number: 145 Registered: 11-2007 |
That 32% is actually pretty good on the curve. Nice post by the way HP. | ||
Detroitjim Member Username: Detroitjim Post Number: 8 Registered: 02-2008 |
The drop out rate has been about the same for the 30 years or so , 60%. I first remember that number just after I graduated high scoo(late 70s). Back then the excuse makers used the exact same(flawed) reasoning about people fleeing the city for the extra ordinarily high percentile of nongraduates. Its unfortunate but this city is, truly DOOMED! Our sixth grade graduate ,Jethro Bodine ,brain surgeons certainly have a way of detracting businesses that are considering relocating here. | ||
Softailrider Member Username: Softailrider Post Number: 131 Registered: 02-2007 |
I'd bet that the GRADUATION rate in Southfield schools ( which is mostly black also ) is way higher then Detroit schools . My wife taught there till the mid-90's , she mentioned dropouts were rare when she was teaching there . Also , she has said that the kids were not socially promoted either , if they flunked then they flunked . | ||
Gazhekwe Member Username: Gazhekwe Post Number: 1601 Registered: 08-2007 |
I wonder if the method takes into account the population loss in Detroit over the past four years. It is reported to number in the thousands. Is it not conceivable that it would include high school students moving with their families for better employment opportunities? | ||
Lefty2 Member Username: Lefty2 Post Number: 1268 Registered: 07-2007 |
The DPS student population was 159,768 in fall 2001 and has fallen to 105,000 in fall 2007. A 35 % drop in 7 years! WOW From previous bonds, DPS owes the State of Michigan $510 million, Because of rapidly declining enrollment, the Detroit Public Schools has a goal of closing 95 schools by 2009. A US Department of Education audit for 2003-2005 found that the district misspent $930,448 1994, the voters approved a $1.5 billion bond issue to be used for capital improvements. Bad accounting led to corruption. The district has lost 60,000 students, or about 1/3rd of its population, but closed only 35 buildings, or only 14%, and the remaining buildings are underutilized. A Detroit Free Press report showed that the district spent $1.3 million on conferences, catering, hotels, and related items. Brenda Scott Middle School Principal Beverly Butler forbade students from purchasing milk or juice with their home made lunches, and required that all lunches not include sweets and chips as a disciplinary measure. (what a nice gesture) I guess the corrupt leaders of this bond leveraged boondoggle is driving many people out of the city and making a few people very rich. As part of a nationwide study, John Hopkins University labeled the following DPS schools as "dropout factories" because less than 60% of incoming freshmen made it to their senior year[52] I could go on and on ad nauseum but we all get the point. The parents who send their kids to these schools are also the parents who run this monstrosity of failure. Obviously there are a ton of smart,entrepreneurial and well intentioned people coming out of Detroit schools every year. The problem is overall is that Detroit is spending billions in money to keep kids stupid. | ||
Trstar Member Username: Trstar Post Number: 24 Registered: 05-2007 |
what are other districts dropout rate? What about other urban cities. Not trying to deflect,but to get a comparison. | ||
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard Post Number: 5407 Registered: 10-2004 |
DPS enrollment dropped 34% in six years, not in seven. (2007 - 2001 = 6) Do not go to the front of the class! Urbanize gave some ridiculous reasons for the drop. They were so unbelievable that I couldn't remember them... The attendance figures will continue to drop for the next four or five years. The primary reason is that the Baby Echo from the Baby Boom are now matriculating through middle and high school now. The first year of the Echo Boom are now freshmen in college or doing something else. The youngest are now in the eighth grade. In five more years, they will be totally out of K-12 education and the annual number of students across the country will drop substantially. At the same time, their dropout rates are high. | ||
Lefty2 Member Username: Lefty2 Post Number: 1283 Registered: 07-2007 |
LY - You get a gold star on your forehead for paying attention. Check this link out. Looters haunt idle DPS sites. Police have arrested 104 thieves at vacant Detroit school buildings since September http://www.detnews.com/apps/pb cs.dll/article?AID=/20080227/S CHOOLS/802270376/1409/METRO | ||
Goblue Member Username: Goblue Post Number: 1270 Registered: 03-2007 |
32% graduation in 2007...well...in 1950 the rate was about 45%. | ||
Lefty2 Member Username: Lefty2 Post Number: 1292 Registered: 07-2007 |
45%, thats low, I didn't know about half the people from Detroit back then were not well educated, but then again there were jobs to put wheels on cars. I guess there is plenty of work for copper scrappers these days. | ||
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard Post Number: 5421 Registered: 10-2004 |
What would be an estimate for Detroit's illiteracy rate 58 years ago? Were they selling newspapers back then, before people had TVs? | ||
Irish_mafia Member Username: Irish_mafia Post Number: 1209 Registered: 10-2003 |
Wouldn't it be more cost effective and more successful to close the DPS tomorrow and hand every kid in the City of Det a voucher to go to a private or parochial school? | ||
Danny Member Username: Danny Post Number: 7156 Registered: 02-2004 |
NO, Irish_mafia, Because a major city MUST have a public educational system. Even in the ghettos. | ||
Danny Member Username: Danny Post Number: 7157 Registered: 02-2004 |
As long as DPS still has unqualified teachers and at risk under privilege kids. DPS will never reform their educational status. White parents from the suburbs won't even sent their kids to DPS. DPS Superintendent Connie Caloway MUST find a way to reform DPS. Otherwise it will be doomed back to state and private takeover. DPS is still more in the African centered, babysitting 1890s educational businesses while EVIL Charter Schools and most suburban schools are still the 21st Century science, mathematics businesses. Black Detroit parents are eager to sent their kids to those EVIL Charter schools. Even they have to register in the lottery enrollment system to do so. DPS must answer to this enrollment and educational problem by competing because if DPS don't teach the students some ABCs to E=MC2. Then the parents will move their children out the school system for good. | ||
Gene Member Username: Gene Post Number: 69 Registered: 10-2006 |
Danny, I am assuming that 1890s (1980s?)is a typo, during that period schools were not what you indicated. Wish they would go back to the basics though. | ||
Irish_mafia Member Username: Irish_mafia Post Number: 1210 Registered: 10-2003 |
Think of it. You have two problems in Detroit: Security and Education. In one fell swoop, you eliminate the education issue....families would move into the city for the vouchers alone... In one generation, the Catholic Parochial school system in NYC changed the Irish population from an impoverished, illiterate drag on society to the leaders of the city....one generation. There is no reason that we shouldn't be able to do the same for the children of Detroit today. | ||
Hockey_player Member Username: Hockey_player Post Number: 410 Registered: 10-2003 |
Quote: "32% graduation in 2007...well...in 1950 the rate was about 45%" Your source for this is...?? | ||
Defendbrooklyn Member Username: Defendbrooklyn Post Number: 726 Registered: 11-2005 |
If Granny pushes the drop out age to 18 that 31.9 will drop!•• |
