Sad State of High School Graduation Rates

Written by Jack Hassard

On June 21, 2006

In an earlier post, which was critical of an editorial in the Journal of Research in Science Teaching, I pointed out that reform in science education needs to focus on what is happening in urban high schools (or what is not happening). We are losing many of our students, and in some urban cities, we are losing more as dropouts, than those you dropin and stay for graduation.

Today, the USA Newspaper had as its headline a discussion of the dropout problem. Reform in education must start here, and focus on helping students stay in school, and develop the abilities to move to post-secondary education. As I mentioned in that earlier post, some very outstanding work is being done through the Gates Educational Foundation, and is worth looking into.

Departments of Education, such as the one in Georgia, are out of the loop when it comes to reform, and they are more interested in their annual experience of testing and reporting to the public. We need curriculum reform, and teacher reform directed at working with students in smaller, more intimate environments.

You May Also Like…

A Letter from A Teen Living in 2051 about Education and the Climate Crisis

A Letter from A Teen Living in 2051 about Education and the Climate Crisis

This post focuses on education and climate as seen by a teen living in Atlanta in the year 2051.  I originally published it on April 21,  2012.  Although a work of fiction, it is presented here as a reminder of the consequences of making decisions based on faulty reasoning and ignorance.  I am re-publishing it today ahead of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference being held in Glasgow, Scotland

Michelle Rhee’s legacy

Latest Story: Reblogged from Mathbabe Michelle Rhee’s legacy Dr. O’Neil provides important comparisons between the Atlanta cheating scandal and the cheating scandal in Washington, D.C. under Michelle Rhee. The difference was the scandal in D.C. was buried. Originally...

Is the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium Smart or Just Dumb?

Is the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium Smart or Just Dumb?  That's the question we'll try to address in this blog post. The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (Smarter Balanced) released scale scores for math and ELA (English Language Arts) aligned to the...

0 Comments

We would enjoy reading your comments

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Discover more from Citizen Jack

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading