By John Bebow - August 29, 2008
No, we're not talking football season here.
A full quarter of Michigan high school students don't graduate, according to new state data released last week.
"To be competitive, Michigan needs the best educated workforce in the nation, and the fact that one out of every four high school students is failing to graduate on time is totally unacceptable," Gov. Jennifer Granholm told the Detroit News this week.
It's the same thing citizens have said across the state during the Michigan's Defining Moment campaign. At every level — parents, teachers, administrators, legislators, business, community groups, and the students themselves — much more needs to be done to assure our state's workers are ready for the global economy.
MDM participants have called for more intensified curriculum, equitable funding across school districts, investing in early childhood education, lengthening the school day and year, reductin class sizes, rewarding good teachers, and widening our definition of student achievement.
To see dropout rates in your community, click here.
To see how the MEA teachers union is addressing dropout concerns, get info on the Dropout Prevention Leadership Summit in Lansing in October.
4 Comments
Any of the drop outs, due to extremely tough economic times for lower educated families with difficult job prospects in need of teens to find some work to help out a single parent or unemployed parent earning poverty wages?
I appreciate the comment from "Steve".
However, there are hundreds and hundreds at least, who manage to endure all that you state and still graduate High School every year. This State is drowning in social economic programs and assistance for anyone who truely wants. There are reasons and then there are excuses. I can not condone dropping out of school. Society shouldn't either as this propogates more severe problems for people in the future. A high school education is as necessary as wearing shoes in the winter.
I would propose an incentive to those who would drop out of school before graduating. Perhaps no driver's license would be issued if one were to drop out before 16 years of age, until one's 19th birthday?. If you drop out after 16 years of age it could be revoked or severely restricted. If a GED is achieved then this would be removed. The "priviledge" of driving is paramount in importance to young people.
NOW THAT MITT ROMNEY HAS PUBICLY SAID HE WOULD NOT TAKE A POSITION IN THE JOHN MCCAIN ADMINSTRATION, DO YOU THINK WE COULD GET HIM TO RE-PATRIOT TO MICHIGAN AND RUN FOR GOVERNOR ?
I agree with the overall sentiment of John's blog entry — getting young people a basic set of skills must remain at the top of our list of priorities. I would like to offer a possible "20 percent" solution in light of the different ways that young people grow intellectually and emotionally. This means that 80 percent of our young people are best served by structured educational curriculum; it is the other 20 percent that I would like to talk about as a father of three children going to public schools and as a scout leader.
Someone once said that education is not the filling of a bucket but the lighting of a fire. If every child has his/her own emotional/intellectual timetable in which the fire is to be lit, we should think about getting the Michigan business community to change its posture toward young people who are smart enough to innovate, but not "smart" enough to make it through the standard public school curriculum. There is one company that I admire — I think its DeMattia Construction — that sponsors big Boy Scout events, that seems to have it right. There are a lot of young males, for example, who are every bit as bright as the valedictorian, who get into construction. Our state government could step up its programs for on-the-job training in ways that will surely annoy the educational system gatekeepers. But there's not much left that Michigan can really do but this: innovate in on the job training itself.
Yes, I am talking about teaching 16 year old drop outs the Pythagorean theorem while they run fast Fourier transform-based software in research labs; teaching them Tristram Shandy while they collate legal briefs. It can be done.
Hope someone can grab a piece of this idea and run with it.
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