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.

News station features online school

The Clovis Online School serving students of Central California was featured by the Channel 30 news station on Tuesday.   Teachers and students did a great job of being interviewed. The film crew filmed our oldest staff member, who teachers art history, doing an Elluminate session with students.  Please click on the video so it becomes the most watched video on Channel 30.

more about “News station features online school“, posted with vodpod