This is absolutely tragic. According to a recently released study, only 1 of 2 students graduate high school in US cities and out of every 10 US public school students, 3 do not graduate from high school.
In a report on graduation rates around the country, the EPE Research Center and the America Promise Alliance also showed that the high school graduation rate — finishing 12 grades of school — in big cities falls to as low as just 34.6 percent in Baltimore, Maryland, and barely over 40 percent for the troubled Ohio cities of Columbus and Cleveland.
At 80%, Asian-Americans score the highest graduation rate. Why is that?
What little I know about public education, I have a guess. Yes, good teachers and a safe school are extremely important and play a role.
However, what about culture and lifestyle? Asian-American families stress education, discipline and other traits that contribute to their success.
DemographicallyAsian-Americans are fairly well dispersed among both inner-city and suburban located schools. Yet, they still are way ahead in graduation rates.
I think it starts at home. With the most important influence: parents, family, friends, and neighbors. What does a student come to school armed with (no not weapons)? What do they bring to the classroom: ideas, work ethic, biases, belief systems, ect.
Don’t go blaming the school system or the teacher without taking a close look at the home, culture, and/or lifestyle that the student comes from. What support systems does the student have? What are the major influences and what is modeled in the home?
All are very important and come first.
there definitely needs to be a support system at home. and yes, asian students undoubtedly get that.
on a similar note….check out this charter school in philadelphia. it takes the community of the school very seriously and has consistently taken failing schools and made them succeed.
http://www.masterycharter.org/masterymodel.html
the didn’t change the students… though they changed the culture by compensating high performing teachers more than other teachers, and giving monetary bonuses to all staff if the school meets certain testing benchmarks….
they also allow for more interaction with the teachers, dismissing all students early on wednesdays so that teachers have time to meet, discuss progress, goals, students, etc….