You probably received the email from Alonso today highlighting the fact that our Baltimore City African American males are leading the pack in decreasing the dropout rate while increasing the graduation rate. In the past three years, Baltimore City's dropout rate has decreased by 56% while the graduation rate if up 10%. Our African American male students are breaking these statistics with 59% and 12.4%, respectively. While I could not be happier that more students are staying in school and receiving their diploma, these statistics make me question if Maryland's requirements are rigorous enough.
As educators, we debate about standardized testing endlessly. Personally, I feel that some sort of test to compare results between schools, districts, and states is necessary to ensure our students are learning what we need them to learn. The Baltimore Sun highlights the decrease in Baltimore City's dropout rate stating that state officials believe the HSAs to have increased the "standards for students and enabled more to get a diploma." Although I believe that statement to be true, I feel that the second half is a bit vague. If you check out the Maryland Report Card for Baltimore City, only 68% of our seniors have actually passed the Algebra / Data Analysis HSA. However, 100% have met the requirement for graduation. Within that gap comes Bridge Projects: the get out of jail free card for our students. Not surprisingly, most see it that way too.
This year I am teaching an Algebra / Data Analysis HSA Mastery class for junior non - passers that need to pass. All of my students already know the ins and outs of the Bridge Projects and most see no point in attempting to take and pass the HSA for the sixth time when they can just complete the projects and still meet the requirements.
With that all said, I love that Baltimore City's dropout rate is continually decreasing, but are we still holding our students to high expectations when we give them an easy alternative when they cannot pass the required examinations to graduate? Should we take away that option and fear that dropout rates once again increase? Obviously there is no right answer to this inevitable struggle of balance, but finding a way to ensure students are receiving the knowledge they need to succeed in the real world should be the main priority in all schools.
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3 comments:
Maria -
I agree completely about what you said about our expectations dropping. I am currently teaching Bridge, and I swear I spend so much time just reviewing what an adjective is. I think to myself, this student will graduate. Does it mean the same thing as graduating from somewhere else? My school has hundreds of these projects to complete, and I cannot help but question the rigor of our graduation requirements.
What do you think about having two types of diplomas? We use alot of human capital on bridge projects of questionable value. Why not have one "basic" diploma for those who didn't pass the tests, and an "advaced" diploma for those who did.
I agree with you, Maria, that bridge projects have drastically lowered the standards for graduation. Having graded bridge projects in the past, I know that they are neither a representation of deep thought, nor do they cover the breadth of the curriculum that they are intended to.
But what further frustrates me is that I am unsure of what this data measures. My school is desperately trying to meet AYP this year, and like all schools around Baltimore, has enlisted teachers with making strides to ensure that all students who are on roll are attending school. I’ve called homes and had students tell me that they’ve dropped out, or that they’re attending a job corps program, and they still appear on my roster, weeks later. There is a great deal of difficulty (i.e. endless paper work) in removing a student who has dropped out from a teacher’s roster. While I appreciate that Dr. Alonso has made many options for Baltimore’s students, including alternative programs, I am not convinced of the accuracy of the presented data on dropouts.
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