New dropout report

This study shows how much money would have been gained if students had graduated from high school.  See the city by city analysis.  Here was the press release (Nov. 19):

If just half of the dropouts in an average year graduated, additional tax revenues and increased wages would substantially buoy the local economies of the nation’s fifty largest cities

(For more information and specific numbers for each of the cities listed above, please visit the Alliance’s website at http://www.all4ed.org/publication_material/EconMSA)

Washington, D.C. – New game-changing research conducted by the Alliance for Excellent Education (The Alliance) released today shows that the U.S. economy would grow significantly if the number of high school dropouts was cut in half.

Nearly 600,000 students dropped out of the high school class of 2008 in the nation’s fifty largest cities and the surrounding areas. The Alliance’s research shows that, if just half of those students had graduated, on average, they would have earned more than $4.1 billion in additional income every year. In addition, in these areas, state and local tax revenues in an average year would jump by a total of nearly $536 million.

“In these lean economic times, local businesses and governments are looking for any way they can to improve their financial situation,” said former West Virginia Governor and Alliance for Excellent Education President Bob Wise. “These numbers demonstrate clearly that every consumer, business, and taxpayer benefits dramatically when we do what it takes to increase the number of students who graduate from high school with the skills they need to succeed in life. Indeed, the best economic stimulus is a high school diploma.”

The AEE study also found that 65 percent of the additional high school graduates would continue their education with many earning a PhD or other professional degree.

“As a business leader I’m committed to a quality education for all children and to strengthening the vitality of our communities,” said Edward B. Rust Jr., Chairman and CEO of State Farm®. “The new Alliance for Excellent Education model conclusively demonstrates that graduating from high school has significant positive economic and financial consequences for the business community and not just for the individual getting the education. Assuring that all of our students graduate from high school with the skills necessary to compete in a global economy is something all businesses-small and large-should see as a priority.”

While it is impossible to forecast precise values of economic benefits, the Alliance is confident that these figures fall within the range of benefits that each region could expect to see. The economic model used to estimate these economic benefits was developed by the Alliance for Excellent Education with the generous support of State Farm® and in partnership with Economic Modeling Specialists, Inc.

The model is based on graduation rates calculated by Editorial Projects in Education and projects the economic benefits for U.S. Census-defined metropolitan statistical areas (MSA), which consist of a central urban area and the surrounding geographic area if it has strong social and economic ties to that city. The 45 MSAs include the 50 largest cities in the country. Five of these cities share a region with another.

The 4,900 high schools located within these MSAs have an average graduation rate of 69.8 percent. Over 900 of these are considered “dropout factories,” that is, schools where fewer than 60 percent of freshman progress to their senior year on time.

The cities in the research include: Albuquerque, Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Colorado Springs, Columbus, Dallas-Ft. Worth-Arlington, Denver, Detroit, El Paso, Fresno, Honolulu, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles-Long Beach, Louisville, Memphis, Miami, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Nashville, New York City, Oklahoma City, Omaha, Philadelphia, Phoenix-Mesa, Portland, Sacramento, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco-Oakland, San Jose, Seattle, Tucson, Tulsa, Virginia Beach, Washington, D.C., Wichita.

For more information and specific numbers for each of the cities listed above, please visit the Alliance’s website at http://www.all4ed.org/publication_material/EconMSA.

NOTE: In January, the Alliance will release additional economic and financial benefits of reducing dropout rates in these 50 cities, including additional spending and investment, job and economic growth, and home and auto sales.

The student dropout crisis really bugs me

In researching studies about online learning, charter schools and students at risk of dropping out of school, I continue to come across more and more case studies and reports that show the education gap that exists across the United States.

This recent report (2009, pdf), “Gaining Ground on High School Graduation Rates...” from the Southern Regional Education Board shows that there is a 74% graduation rate (which means 26% do not graduate and do not earn a high school diploma).  Among African American and Hispanic students, the graduation rate is 55%.  This report is based on data from the most recent NCES report (2009) entitled, “High School DropOut and Graduation Rates: 2007.”

This morning, a related NPR story caught my attention.  The story, “Racial achievement gap still plagues schools“  lead me to the website, “Mind the Gap“,  a yearlong study completed by Nancy Solomon.  The study shows the racial differences of students who attend Columbia High School in New Jersey.  And how white and black students are treated differently…not just at this school, but at every high school like this across America.

The dropout crisis is complicated and complex.  Every person in every city needs to be working together to change this direction throughout the United States.

I meet the faces of some of these students from Central California every day in the charter online school for which I am the principal.   The faces are Asian, white, Hispanic, African American, Filipino and all races.  All students want to learn, want to connect with teachers, want to engage in learning, and want to earn a high school diploma.  Some students are frustrated with traditional school, some students want different options for learning, and some students have had many negative school experiences.

We need to work together in all of our communities to improve the graduation rate for all high school students in America.

Dissertation: Preliminary Defense Over

I just completed one of the “rites of passage” for those seeking a doctorate.  This rite of passage is called the “Preliminary Defense.”  Not many people write or talk about the actual preliminary defense meeting.   The doctoral regulations governing the doctorate at CSU Fresno gives mention of it, but does not explain the process, but says you need to do it and to file a bunch of forms once it is completed.  It appears this is the way it is for most doctoral programs.

As with other doctoral “passages”, the process leading up to the event is more rigorous than the event itself.  I found the preliminary defense discussion to be helpful in further focusing my topic and direction.  I prepared a two page document for my committee members, but few of them seemed to looked at it.  I also prepared a PowerPoint presentation, complete with pictures (just text gets soooo boring) that shared the background of my topic a little review of the literature and the plan for my study (also called the “methodology”).

I had prepared the room to include bottles of water and some chocolate for my committee members.  When the committee assembled, they had me leave the room and then invited me back in.  I proceeded with my presentation via PowerPoint and committee members asked questions throughout.  I had included a “question or ideas or clarification” slides throughout my presentation which helped to direct the conversation.   Throughout the presentation, there were questions and clarifications that helped me to better refine my study.  At the end, they asked me to leave the room so they could talk.  They then invited me back in and said, “Congratulations!”    Entire process took about 60 minutes.

Then, filing the paper work (which took me about two hours to prepare) was the next step and now, that is over!

My current dissertation title is:   Are at-risk students more successful in online charter high schools than in traditional high schools?

And my research questions are:

1. Are there a disproportionate number of at-risk students attending online charter schools as compared to traditional high schools?
2. Are at-risk students more successful in online charter high schools than they are in traditional high schools?

Now, the exciting work begins!

A new superintendent blog and did you know?

The new superintendent of the Clovis Unified School District, Dave Cash, has began to blog about his experiences at “Every Child, every chance, every day!” If you’re interested in finding out what makes Clovis Unified ( in Central California) work, you’ll enjoy reading his observations.

Secondly, I may be a bit behind on this, but I just viewed the lastest “Did You Know” video updated by Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod in the past several months.  Just like the past versions, it will cause you to pause and wonder how we are utilizing this information in the classroom…  Enjoy watching Did You Know 4.0:

A normal Sunday in an online school

I logged into the instant message system we are using for our online school on Sunday afternoon just to see if anything was happening.  Within a minute or so, Suzie IM’ed me to see how I was doing.  We interacted for a minute or two and then she asked it if was ok to include Dave in our conversation.  Both Suzie and Dave are part of the Clovis Online School student leadership team.  We talked about needing an “online student lounge” where students can hang out with one another.  Suzie and Dave expressed the need for a place where students could all be in a chat room together or IM with one another and this place would also allow students to all be in a web cam conversation at the same time or with just one other person.  Suzie then asked if Dave or I had heard of Stickam…we both checked it out.  We agreed that we would discuss the idea further at our Tuesday student leadership meeting.

At the end of the 15-minute interchange, Suzie says, “it’s kind of weird to be IMing with the principal of the school.”  At that moment, I realized that one of the promises of online learning was playing out on this Sunday afternoon.  The interchange with two students like this may occur between a principal and students in a brick and mortar school, but probably not on a Sunday afternoon.  Additionally, these students had some important suggestions of ways to improve our online school that we will discuss later this week during our online student leadership team meeting.  All part of an online principal’s job.  Just a regular Sunday afternoon.