[tips] HS Dropout rates

[Rick Froman]

If you have seen this before, I am sorry for the double posting. Please delete it with my apologies. I sent it yesterday and never saw it come back to me. I also didn’t get the usual info messages and junk I get from the server whenever I send a message to TIPS so I concluded it got lost somewhere.   I just covered HS dropout rates in Adolescent Psych and the text I use (Cobb’s 5th edition of Adolescence) puts the dropout rate at 10.9% for all students in 2000, down from 14.6% in 1972. African Americans in 2000 were a little below 15% and Hispanics were approaching 30%.  Now, the latest cover story in Time magazine has this passage (I bolded some incredibly ludicrous passages): “In today's data-happy era of accountability, testing and No Child Left Behind, here is the most astonishing statistic in the whole field of education: an increasing number of researchers are saying that nearly one out of three public high school students won't graduate, not just in Shelbyville but around the nation. For Latinos and African-Americans, the rate approaches an alarming 50 percent. Virtually no community, small or large, rural or urban, has escaped the problem. There is a small but hardy band of researchers who insist the dropout rates don't quite approach those levels. They point to their pet surveys that suggest a rate of only 15 percent to 20 percent. The dispute is difficult to referee, particularly in the wake of decades of lax accounting by states and schools. But the majority of analysts and lawmakers have come to this consensus: the numbers have remained unchecked at approximately 30 percent through two decades of intense educational reform, and the magnitude of the problem has been consistently, and often willfully, ignored. That's starting to change.” So what does the best research in this area say? Are there any experts in this area on this list (possibly one of those small, hardy folk with a pet survey) or do we need to rely for these facts on “analysts and lawmakers” (read: politicians and their enablers) for accurate empirical data? Rick Dr. Rick Froman Professor of Psychology John Brown University 2000 W. University Siloam Springs, AR  72761 [EMAIL PROTECTED] (479) 524-7295 http://www.jbu.edu/academics/sbs/faculty/rfroman.asp --- To make changes to your subscription go to: http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang=english