Graduation Rates Highest in 40 Years

High school graduation rates are now at their highest level since the 1970s. In 2009-2010, 78.2% of students earned their diploma in four years, compared with 75.5% in 2008-2009. The graduation rate peaked at 78.7% in 1969-1970 and declined steadily until recently, dropping as low as 71% in the 1990s (data from Bloomberg News). The largest increases were among African American and Hispanic youth.

On the one hand, we should all take a step back and relax. Our schools are not failing—they are improving—and the frantic push for reform is excessive and unnecessary, or at least not urgent.

On the other hand, the market-driven reformers would love to take responsibility for the gains and claim that their privatization schemes have worked, thus justifying more of the same. Yet there is no clear evidence to support this and there are plenty of other plausible explanations.

For one, we live in a very different world than we did in the 1960s and 70s, when there were ample decent-paying jobs available to those without a high school diploma. Back then, dropping out of high school and going to work in a blue collar trade or on an assembly line made economic sense, particularly if one lacked the money or grades for college. Today, this is a much riskier option. Many of these jobs have disappeared and the ones that remain pay much less than they used to. Indeed, the youth unemployment continues to be substantially higher than the overall unemployment rate (16% for those under 25, as of November 2012).

Another option for high school dropouts has been the military. While this was a poor choice in the 1960s and early 70s, when the risk of dying in Vietnam was relatively high, from the mid-70s through the 1980s a person could make a decent living in the military without much risk of ever seeing combat and many lower income youth took this option. However, joining the military today could easily lead to a risky tour of duty (or several tours) in a violent and volatile region of the world.

While some reforms have no doubt also contributed to the rising graduation rate, these are not necessarily the market driven reforms like No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, privatization and vouchers, Value-Added Measures of teacher effectiveness or Common Core Standards. Rather, increased funding for and enrollment in programs like Head Start and preschool—which help close the achievement gap that exists prior to entering the K-12 education system—increase students’ self-efficacy and school-readiness, thus improving their chances of succeeding in school over the long-term. This might also be one of the reasons why K-5 math test scores have increased so much over the past decade.

Another hypothesis that has been proposed is the closing of “dropout factories.” On the surface, this seems like a no-brainer: close the schools that produce the dropouts and more kids will necessarily graduate from school. The problem with this hypothesis is that is says nothing about where those students end up after their school has been closed or why they were dropping out at high rates in the first place, let alone whether they graduated from their new schools.

If they were dropping out because of a poorly administered school or incompetent teachers and they were reassigned to one with good management and effective teachers then we should expect an increase in graduation rates. However, because graduation rates are strongly correlated with students’ socioeconomic backgrounds, simply changing schools, teachers or administrators should not solve the problem. Many of these students have had poor academic success throughout their lives, resulting in low self-efficacy and they have given up on school.

Furthermore, the likelihood of graduating on time from high school is directly linked with students’ experiences in middle and elementary school. For example, students with high absenteeism in grades K-5 have a much higher rate of dropping out of high school. This is because they are behind in credits and prerequisite knowledge due to their absences. Poverty also leads to a significant achievement gap before kids have even started kindergarten, a gap that tends to grow with time unless mitigated early, in the pre-K and K-5 years. As a result, by the time they enter high school, many are reading far below grade level and lack the study and social skills necessary to succeed in high school. Shutting down “dropout factories” does nothing to solve these problems.

Another hypothesis that is seldom discussed in the media is the changes to teacher attitudes and training that have occurred over the past two decades. In the past, it was relatively common to track students based on their perceived or assumed abilities, which led to classes that were highly segregated by race and economic background. This likely contributed to children’s sense of alienation from school and sense that they could not succeed. Today, education programs (and many K-12 schools and districts) place a great deal of emphasis on learning how to relate to and support children from diverse backgrounds. There has been an effective movement to eliminate (or reduce) tracking and encourage children of all ethnicities, genders and socioeconomic backgrounds to take challenging courses (e.g., Advanced Placement), apply to college and maintain sufficient credits and grades to get into college. As a result, there have been large increases in the numbers of students taking and passing AP exams from virtually all backgrounds.

Anecdotally, from my own experience, it seems there has also been a growing movement for teachers, counselors and support staff to become more personally involved in students’ lives, to notice when students seem to be falling through the cracks and to contact home and help them access the appropriate support services. If this is indeed a growing trend, it could also help explain the higher graduation rates, as it would help many at-risk kids overcome the obstacles to graduating on time.

Graduation rates have steadily climbed for the last decade. During that time, teen pregnancy, drug use and violence have declined. It could be that our children are simply better behaved and more willing to do what is expected of them than their parents’ generation was.

The Pre-K Achievement Gap

Good Education just reviewed a recent survey presented at the annual conference for the National Association for the Education of Young Children in which two-thirds of kindergarten teachers say the majority of their students start school without knowing basic preschool concepts like the alphabet.

According to the survey, only 6% of kindergarten teachers said that their students were well prepared academically at the beginning of the year. Many students did not know how to hold a pencil or write their name. Less than 9% of teachers said their incoming students’ oral language skills were good.

The article does make some incorrect implications, like the idea that college educated parents are often working so much they may not spend enough time reading to their children. While they may be working longer hours and spending less time with their children than they should, affluent parents on average do spend far more time reading to their children than do poor and working class parents. They also tend to use a larger vocabulary with their children and introduce them to more complex words and ideas. Consequently, affluent children start kindergarten with significantly larger vocabularies and literacy skills (see Burkam and Lee).

The article also incorrectly hypothesizes that if every student had access to early childhood education, they would all be equal by the time they started kindergarten, effectively preventing the achievement gap from forming in the first place. This presumes that all children are equal at the age of three or four, and that the achievement gap results because some go to preschool and others do not.

In reality, lack of preschool worsens an achievement gap that is already in place well before children are even old enough for preschool (see Hart and Risely). Preschool has been shown to help mitigate this for some lower income children and provide skills that help some become school ready, but it does not make them equal to their middle class peers by the time they start kindergarten. And it does nothing to improve the conditions in their homes and communities that cause the achievement gap to grow over time, like hunger, illness and absenteeism, or lack of access to intellectually enriching summer activities.

It is troubling, though, that 94% of kindergarten teachers felt that their students were not well-prepared for kindergarten. However, it should not be a surprise. As the recession continues, we will likely continue to see increasing numbers of children struggling in school. Testing them and giving them homework to “prepare them for the rigors of secondary school” will not make them successful. It will only turn them off to school and learning at an early age and drive more people from the teaching profession.

The Beatings for Preschoolers Will Continue Until Test Scores Improve

(Thanks to Schools Matter blog for first covering this news from Ed Week)

Not only has NCLB not gone away or been “reformed,” it has given birth to a demon spawn named Race to the Top (RTTT), with Obama and Arne Duncan as co-fathers. The basic idea is to dangle a few million bucks in front of states desperate for cash to bail out their sinking education systems and get them to beat themselves up to win the money. The states that go the farthest in opening up their public education systems to private profit, weakening teachers unions and stifling students’ curiosity and creativity through excessive testing and test preparation, win the limited funds.

Now RTTT is offering grants to early childhood education programs and preschools. Since the achievement gap starts well before kids start school (see here, here and here), it makes sense to improve learning at the pre-K level, and these programs are in desperate need of money. However, as Education Week reports, in order to win a grant, states will have to develop assessment systems for their programs and develop appropriate standards and tests for young children.

That’s right, states will start mandating testing and test preparation at the pre-school level, as if it wasn’t already terrible enough to do this to k-3^rd graders, let alone any child. But it is even worse when one considers how little states will gain for selling out toddlers to the test publishers and corporate education raiders. Arne Duncan only is offering $500 million, which is chump change when divvied up among five or more states. (Actual state grants will range from $50-100 million). The money might barely cover the tests the little tykes will be forced to endure. After paying for consultants, assessors, new curricula and training, pre-K schools certainly won’t have anything extra left to hire more staff, offer good wages, expand enrollment, or invest in manipulatives, picture books and learning games. In the end, very young kids will learn very early to hate school. Their schools will gain nothing but a lot more bureaucracy and headaches. Only the test and curriculum publishers really stand to gain directly.

Toddlers, Enemies of the People! The Decimation of Preschool in America

The National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER: www.nieer.org) has just published its annual “State of Preschool” survey, which shows that overall funding for pre-kindergarten programs dramatically declined. The Washington Times reports that states spent an average of $114 less per child in 2009-2010 compared with the previous year, despite receiving extra money from the federal stimulus package. Compared with a decade ago, they are spending an average of $700 less per child.

Demonstrating the clarity and brilliance that comes from an elite private school education, Secretary of State Arne Duncan said that "Three- and four-year-olds don't vote, don't hire lobbyists and don't have a union." (Quote is from the Los Angeles Times.)

Steven Barnett, co-director of the NIEER, who conducted the survey, said “We don’t eliminate first grade in tough economic times …why do we cut preschool? (Quote is from the 4 LA Kids blog). He also warned that the cuts will negatively affect the school readiness of youngsters. Valerie Strauss (The Answer Sheet) pointed out that considerable research correlates high quality preschool programs with improved high school graduation rates. She also notes that neither Obama’s blueprint for rewriting No Child Left Behind nor Race to the Top includes high-quality preschool, suggesting that the Ed Secretary and the President need to coordinate their propaganda better.

Five states—Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri and Ohio — now enroll fewer children than they did 10 years ago. However, the biggest hit was to programs serving 3-year olds, with nine states cutting enrollment by 10% or more. According to the Times, less than 300,000 three-year-olds are enrolled in state-funded pre-school programs, out of 1.3 million preschoolers in funded programs.

The report also looked at the quality of schools, examining 10 standards. 23 of the 40 states with funded programs failed to meet the institute’s benchmarks for teacher qualifications, while 26 failed to meet the benchmark for assistant teacher qualifications. Only five states met all 10 standards: Alabama, Alaska, one of the three Louisiana programs, North Carolina, and Rhode Island.

While California’s preschool funding held steady last year, only about 17% of the state's 4-year-olds attended state-funded schools, according to the Los Angeles Times. This ranks California 23^rd out of the 40 states that have funded programs. Worse, California met only four of NIEER’s ten standards, including site visits, child-to-staff ratios, and teacher training. With expected funding cuts, the number of students served will likely decline further, while the quality of existing programs will likely deteriorate. In order to close the state’s budget gap, Gov. Brown signed legislation that cuts 15% from subsidized child care and early learning programs. Brown also signed legislation that shifts $1 billion from state and county First 5 programs, which supports preschool education. According to the LA Times, this could result in a loss of 28,000 preschool slots.

As bad as it was last year, next year will be worse. State funding decreased by almost $30 million last year and would have fallen by an additional $49.3 million if it weren’t for stimulus funding. Stimulus funds have since dried up and Congress is considering slashing Head Start and child care programs. States across the country are grappling with huge deficits and many are considering (or have already) implementing cuts to early childhood education, health and welfare. The likely consequences for k-12 education are increasing numbers of students who are ill-prepared for school and a worsening achievement gap.

Privileged Moms Enabling Corporate Child Abusers

A recent piece by Jenny Anderson, in the NY Times, tells the story of a Manhattan mom who sued her daughter’s $19,000-a-year preschool for failing to adequately prepare her daughter for the test to get into New York City’s hypercompetitive private schools. The mom was Nicole Imprescia, the school was York Avenue Preschool, and the test is known as the E.R.B.

Imprescia accused the school of not being “a school at all, but just one big playroom.” Without visiting the school I wouldn’t be able to speak directly to that claim. However, as a father who has been touring potential preschools in San Francisco, I have noticed a general trend toward “learning through play,” where schools set up various play areas, equipped with toys and games, and allow children to migrate to the activity that most interests them. Every preschool I have visited appeared like a big playroom. Furthermore, I have no problem with this. We’re talking about 3-5 year-olds. At this age, children are learning phenomenal amounts of skills and knowledge through exploration and experimentation, through emulation and through play-acting. If this mom is expecting homework, rote test-prep and teacher-centered Dick and Jane, she is not only barking up the wrong tree, her obsession with getting her precious daughter into the “right” school may end up harming her daughter’s social and cognitive development.

Anderson says that preschools like York Avenue Preschool are part of a mini-industry that includes consultants and vendors of test preparation materials. These corporate sharks exploit privileged parents’ fears that their children will get stuck in an inner city public school and corrupted by the nasty habits of poor black and Latino kids and their lazy, incompetent teachers. This fear and the sharks’ greed translate into child abuse for thousands of toddlers, whose art explorations and play-learning are replaced with lessons on bubbling-in and sitting still. Ultimately, for these high-powered toddlers, preschool becomes the new third grade, forcing them to grow up much more quickly and robbing them of their innocence and natural curiosity.

It seems that dragon moms like Imprescia do indeed expect their preschool aged children to be doing high level academic work. Her lawsuit said things like, “It is no secret that getting a child into the Ivy League starts in nursery school,” and “Studies have shown entry into a good nursery school guarantees more income than entry into an average school.” I’m not sure which studies she is quoting, but it is important to point out that correlation does not equal causation. If a “good” preschool is defined as expensive and elite, then a more logical explanation for the correlation between preschool and later success is that social privilege causes both. After all, privileged parents are the ones most likely to send their kids to these elite schools, and they are also more able to provide good diets and healthcare, supplemental enrichment activities during the summer and a lower stress lifestyle, factors that play a significant role in children’s academic success.

York Avenue Preschool may indeed be a lousy school. However, that is not really the point here. All children deserve good schools and all children deserve to be adequately housed, fed and cared for. Those who are financially well-off generally get all these things. Their children start kindergarten (and even preschool) with a substantial academic head start as a result of their economic privilege and this achievement gap grows over time, even if they wind up at a mediocre school with mediocre teachers. Forcing toddlers to learn competitively and to succumb to tedious and controlling regiments of homework and test preparation will simply stifle their curiosity and make them prematurely obsessive-compulsive or depressed.

SF’s Ultra-Elite Preschool

My boy is now three and we’ve begun the heinous process of applying to preschools in San Francisco. The schools range from gorgeous, well-stocked and overpriced “learn-through-play” Victorian houses, to reasonably-priced, fluorescent-lit, basement ghetto warehouses for toddlers. They all give you an earful about not allowing your child to bring peanut butter sandwiches to school. The fanciest ones provide curious parents with well-rehearsed schticks about their full-emersion language programs, yoga, dance and music classes, while the parents trip over each other in an attempt to prove that their child is more worthy than the next.

Bottom line: Get your kid into the right preschool and you gain an competitive edge for Frisco’s best elementary schools, most of which are still giving homework and teaching test-taking skills to k-3 students, while NOT teaching any science.

This is how we plebeians do it.

Here Is How the Ultra-Elite Do Preschool

In Pacific Heights (Specific Whites), one of San Francisco’s glitziest neighborhoods, Ann and Gordon Getty run an exclusive, invitation-only free preschool from their mansion that caters to SF’s most powerful families. According the SF Bay Citizen, there is no admission process. There is no website. There isn’t even a sign over the door. They don’t even have a license. The Playgroup, as the school is known to those in the know, handpicks only the choicest, freshest and most tender young billionaires-to-be for their ultra-elite school.

The ruling elite have grown quite comfortable doing things their own way. And why not? We live in an oligarchy. They make the rules and they enforce the rules. . . Usually. However, the school was recently visited by the San Francisco Fire Department. The school’s director insists that they are exempt from the state’s stringent licensing rules for preschools. A Getty lawyer claims it isn’t a preschool at all, but a “private recreation group” kind of like the private clubs the elite visit, like the Bohemian club, where labor, environmental and even prostitution laws apparently do not apply.

In addition to their recent legal problems, the Playgroup has numerous other problems, too. Staff turnover is high and the organization’s director, Lonna Corder, has pissed off many of the parents. Yet where else can these poor ultra-rich parents go with their children? They cannot simply yank them from the Getty playground and leave them to learn nasty habits from the rabble boys and girls at the $2,000 per month middle class preschools.

What has really upset Playgroup’s upstanding parents is Corder’s terrible habit of diagnosing their children with autism and other developmental problems. Corder has no medical or mental health training. She does hold a Montessori teaching certificate. Even so, a well-trained teacher should certainly be able to recognize some of the warning signs and let parents know about their concerns (significantly different than telling parents their child has autism, which is supposedly what Corder was doing). But the ultra-rich are also ultra-special. They have superior genes (and bank accounts). It is the rabble that is supposed to have these sorts of problems, not them, and they do not need some bush league pedagogue raining on their parade.