Education Week

By Sterling C. Lloyd

In 2007, an estimated 1.2 million students failed to earn high school diplomas with their graduating class. Given that high school graduates, on average, enjoy higher earnings and require fewer government services than non-graduates, the costs of dropping out are high for both individuals and the nation as a whole. As a result, effective interventions that help keep students in school are likely to pay significant dividends. This is especially true if they successfully target those most at risk of dropping out. This Stat of the Week examines the high school pipeline in order to find the point at which the most students are lost.

The 2007 edition of Education Week's annual Diplomas Count report analyzes the high school graduation process as a series of grade-to-grade promotions using the Cumulative Promotion Index. The CPI allows researchers to pinpoint where, in the high school pipeline, students are lost. The results show that the 9th grade is the leading source of student loss. In fact, more than one-third of non-graduates, in the class of 2003-04, failed to make the transition from 9th to 10th grade. This finding suggests that programs to increase graduation rates may need to help 9th graders get off to a good start in high school.

Where are students lost?

Nationally, more than one-third of the students lost from the high school pipeline failed to move from 9th to 10th grade.

Understanding the causes underlying freshman-year loss could be crucial for improving the prospects of youth at-risk of dropping out. To that end, a July 2007 report from the Consortium on Chicago School Research identified four predictors of whether Chicago public high school students would graduate within four years. The researchers found that 9th graders were more likely to graduate on time if they: (1) remained on-track (by accumulating at least ten semester credits and earning no more than one semester "F" in a core academic course), (2) earned higher GPAs, (3) failed fewer semester course, and (4) had fewer absences.

The report notes that, "for many students, freshman year is like a bottleneck" where sub par academic performance puts them so far behind that they are unable to catch up. This finding about the 9th grade underscores the importance of reform strategies designed to assist students early in high school. The Chicago researchers suggest that interventions such as summer school and tutoring programs would be more effective by targeting students who fail one to four courses in the freshman year.

Teacher Magazine
August 2, 2007

Principal Pulls Rank, Teacher Quits

According to a New York Times article, Austin Lampros, a New York City math teacher, resigned from his teaching post at the High School of Arts and Technology in Manhattan this year after the school’s principal altered a student’s grade so she could graduate. Lampros told the Times that, although the student rarely attended class, failed to turn in homework assignments, and even missed the final exam, a school administrator gave her special treatment and a passing grade.

When a representative from the teachers’ union complained, Lampros was permitted to fail the student. Using an override privilege granted by her contract, the principal reversed that student’s grade again.

The article suggests that Lampros is one of many teachers in New York City who feels pressured by administrators to pass marginal students in order to boost declining graduation rates. “It’s almost as if you stick to your morals and your ethics, you’ll end up without a job,” he said.

Last week I purchased a burger and fries at McDonalds for $3.58.

The counter girl took my $4.00 and I pulled 8 cents from my pocket and gave it to her. She stood there, holding the nickel and 3 pennies. While looking at the screen on her register, I sensed her discomfort and tried to tell her to just give me two quarters, but she hailed the manager for help. While he tried to explain the transaction to her, she stood there and cried. Why do I tell you this?

Because of the evolution in teaching math since the 1960s...

Teaching Math In 1960

A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit?

Teaching Math In 1970

A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or $80. What is his profit?

Teaching Math In 1980

A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80. Did he make a profit?

Teaching Math In 1990

A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20 Your assignment: Underline the number 20.

Teaching Math Today

A logger cuts down a beautiful forest because he is selfish and inconsiderate and cares nothing for the habitat of animals or the preservation of our woodlands. He does this so he can make a profit of $20. What do you think of this way of making a living? Topic for class participation after answering the question: How did the birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut down their homes?

(There are no wrong answers.)

CLARK COUNTY CLASSROOMS: Mass-produced ignorance

Grades are going up, but educational standards are sinking like the Titanic

By GREG BARONE
SPECIAL TO THE REVIEW-JOURNAL

Like a giant mythical dragon stomping across the countryside, the Big Day has come and gone, but its echoes are sure to remain for a long time to come. The Nevada High School Proficiency Exam paid us a visit on March 27 -- and in its thunderous wake, I can already sense the ensuing tsunami from the professional opinion-makers: the politicians, the columnists and the school district movers and shakers.

In case anyone is curious about the opinion of an actual high school math teacher, here goes:

Upon arrival at my current port of call within the Clark County School District, I was amazed and delighted to learn that all of my students -- nearly 300 of them -- would be taking geometry. Ah, geometry! The jewel in the crown! The soul of ancient Greece! By far the most profound and challenging of all high school mathematics classes. I might have dared to think civilization itself was not collapsing, after all.

And to tell a secret, I was even a little intimidated. Notwithstanding the fact that I'm a highly qualified calculus teacher according to every local, state and federal law, I still felt a tremor of trepidation at the thought of facing all those scholarly young prodigies. But it was a mountain I was zealously anxious to climb.

And then ... what was it again? I think it was the 67 percent class average on that first test -- the test that was supposed to be a review of basic math. Yes, it was somewhere around then that I started to wonder if the rainbow was just an illusion.

Indeed, that was only the beginning of the downward spiral into oblivion. I doubt any of my subsequent tests have had such a high average. The rest have probably been in the 40s.
That's for multiple choice tests.
Using notes.

It wasn't long before I approached my department chair about all this. I can still remember my exact words. "How? How? How?" I cried like a Dr. Seuss character. "How did these kids ever pass algebra?" At this point, my department chair calmly explained that a lot of them had not. District policy was to move them forward, regardless of whether they had passed the prerequisite course. My response, as I recall, was both eloquent and colorful, and judging from my department chair's reaction, highly entertaining.

I don't really question anyone's good intentions, odd as that might seem. I can appreciate the fatigue the district has experienced while watching massive numbers of students endlessly repeat the same basic math classes under a dozen different titles. Unfortunately, the Titanic went to the floor of the Atlantic on exactly these sorts of good intentions.

Mathematics is a ladder on which no rung can be skipped without inevitable disaster. And disaster is the only word I can find to describe what is going on. Wave upon wave of gargantuan, relentless, catastrophic failure.

Perhaps this is what state Sen. Bob Beers was referring to when he described the district as a bureaucracy that "sucks the enthusiasm from its employees." I echo that sentiment -- though, of course, I mean it in the nicest possible way.

But even this doesn't quite tell the whole story. I have many students who supposedly did well in earlier math classes, though their level of knowledge is grossly inconsistent with their grades.

I don't have to ponder the reasons. This nationwide phenomenon is the result of grading systems that are ... how can I say it? The systems are cluttered? Convoluted? Creative? I'm groping for some nice word to use other than "padded."
Well, OK. Let's say padded.

Consider a class whose grade is based 70 percent on tests and 30 percent on what we euphemistically describe as "homework and participation." The district regards this as acceptable, perhaps even ambitious. With such a system, a student with a 59 percent exam average can turn in a pile of copied homework and get a 71 percent final score for the quarter. An F becomes a C.

In fact, the homework doesn't even need to be copied with any great care. Let's be honest: It is highly unlikely any teacher is meticulously grading hundreds of homework papers every day. I give it a glance, and I see no purpose in pretending otherwise.

I hope the semester exam will help to balance out the giveaways -- maybe, maybe not, depending upon what is on the test, or how much it will count, or what sort of "review" is provided in advance. This does not help students learn. It does not encourage them to learn. It only masks what they have not learned.

This excessive credit for "homework and participation," while well-intentioned, is poisoning our entire educational system -- not to mention the future of the empire -- and I hope to see the day when administrators argue against it, rather than for it.

The years go by. Teachers grow desperate to see even just a few decent grades on their latest test. When that hope is dashed, we reach a point where we cannot listen to the complaints and the hostility from students and parents. "Every other teacher gives points for this and that, why don't you?" English translation: "I demand the right to get a good grade without passing exams." And the teachers wear down. And so go the standards.
Make no mistake, the blame rests squarely on the shoulders of the students -- but the consequences are growing every day.

We reach the epilogue of this drama when a student arrives in high school without the ability to multiply single-digit numbers, or read an analog clock dial, or identify a triangle.

This is today's reality. I am not referring to immigrants. Nor to isolated cases. This is a bottomless pit of inexcusable, home-grown, mass-produced ignorance. Language is not the barrier. Neither is poverty a likely excuse, judging from the ubiquitous cell phones and sneakers and music players, and the new gizmos I don't even know the names of -- unearned rewards that parents are absurdly eager to provide.

I hope my friends and colleagues will accept these words in the spirit intended. I bear no ill will toward those who I believe are truly convinced they are doing the right thing, and I am as guilty as any. But whether it stings or not, my conscience demanded this -- not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.

When I was in second grade, back in the era of the abacus and clay tablets, I vividly remember how my heart sank when I discovered I would be getting that teacher everybody hated. She was a curmudgeonly old prune who didn't care how many kids she had to leave back if they didn't know how to read. Everybody called her nasty names. I probably did too. Miss Baggypants. I remember whining to my mother about it, but she didn't lift a finger.

Today I can read.
I'm awfully sorry I don't remember her name, but God bless Miss Baggypants. And Mom.

Greg Barone is a math teacher at Western High School.