Obama seeks money, interventions to stem dropouts
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama on Monday addressed the nation’s school dropout epidemic, proposing $900 million to states and school districts that agree to drastically change or even shutter their worst performing schools.
Obama’s move comes as many schools continue to struggle to get children to graduation, a profound problem in a rich, powerful nation. Only about 70 percent of entering high school freshmen go on to graduate. The problem affects blacks and Latinos at particularly high rates.
Obama said the crisis hurts individual kids and the nation as a whole, shattering dreams and undermining an already poor economy.
“There’s got to be a sense of accountability,” Obama said in announcing his latest get-tough school proposal at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce during an education event sponsored by the America’s Promise Alliance, the youth organization founded by former Secretary of State Colin Powell and his wife, Alma.
The president’s plan would seek to help 5,000 of the nation’s lowest-performing schools over the next five years.
“In this kind of knowledge economy, giving up on your education and dropping out of school means not only giving up on your future, but it’s also giving up on your family’s future,” Obama said. “It’s giving up on your country.”
Obama has been using federal money as leverage to push schools to raise standards and get more children ready for college or work. It is a task that former President George W. Bush and Congress, along with many leaders before them, have long taken on, but the challenge is steep.
Obama’s 2011 budget proposal includes $900 million for School Turnaround Grants. That money is in addition to $3.5 billion to help low-performing schools that was included in last year’s economic stimulus bill.
To get a share of the new money, states and school districts must adopt one of four approaches to fix their struggling schools:
—Turnaround Model: The school district must replace the principal and at least half of the school staff, adopt a new governance structure for the school, and implement a new or revised instructional program. In his remarks, Obama said a Rhode Island school that recently fired all its teachers is an example of how there needs to be accountability.
—Restart Model: The school district must close and reopen the school under the management of a charter school operator, a charter management organization or an educational management organization. A restarted school would be required to enroll, within the grades it serves, former students who wish to attend.
—School Closure: The school district must close the failing school and enroll the students in other, higher-achieving schools in the district.
—Transformational Model: The school must address four areas, including teacher effectiveness, instruction, learning and teacher planning time, and operational flexibility.
The administration also is putting $50 million into dropout prevention strategies, including personalized and individual instruction and support to keep students engaged in learning, and using data to identify students at risk of failure and help them with the transition to high school and college.
© 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Obama’s move comes as many schools continue to struggle to get children to graduation, a profound problem in a rich, powerful nation. Only about 70 percent of entering high school freshmen go on to graduate. The problem affects blacks and Latinos at particularly high rates.
Obama said the crisis hurts individual kids and the nation as a whole, shattering dreams and undermining an already poor economy.
“There’s got to be a sense of accountability,” Obama said in announcing his latest get-tough school proposal at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce during an education event sponsored by the America’s Promise Alliance, the youth organization founded by former Secretary of State Colin Powell and his wife, Alma.
The president’s plan would seek to help 5,000 of the nation’s lowest-performing schools over the next five years.
“In this kind of knowledge economy, giving up on your education and dropping out of school means not only giving up on your future, but it’s also giving up on your family’s future,” Obama said. “It’s giving up on your country.”
Obama has been using federal money as leverage to push schools to raise standards and get more children ready for college or work. It is a task that former President George W. Bush and Congress, along with many leaders before them, have long taken on, but the challenge is steep.
Obama’s 2011 budget proposal includes $900 million for School Turnaround Grants. That money is in addition to $3.5 billion to help low-performing schools that was included in last year’s economic stimulus bill.
To get a share of the new money, states and school districts must adopt one of four approaches to fix their struggling schools:
—Turnaround Model: The school district must replace the principal and at least half of the school staff, adopt a new governance structure for the school, and implement a new or revised instructional program. In his remarks, Obama said a Rhode Island school that recently fired all its teachers is an example of how there needs to be accountability.
—Restart Model: The school district must close and reopen the school under the management of a charter school operator, a charter management organization or an educational management organization. A restarted school would be required to enroll, within the grades it serves, former students who wish to attend.
—School Closure: The school district must close the failing school and enroll the students in other, higher-achieving schools in the district.
—Transformational Model: The school must address four areas, including teacher effectiveness, instruction, learning and teacher planning time, and operational flexibility.
The administration also is putting $50 million into dropout prevention strategies, including personalized and individual instruction and support to keep students engaged in learning, and using data to identify students at risk of failure and help them with the transition to high school and college.
© 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Labels: Dropouts
posted by Dawn Keller at
4:26 PM
1 Comments:
While wanting to improve educational performance, I continue to wonder if the effort, time, and money keeps getting put down a dark pit. I read this article and other stories yesterday as well. I find nothing in here that speaks to what I think is the major problem.
The words spoken by President Obama, and others associated with this initiative, are all focused on what the schools intend to do. We've all heard pretty much the same speech year after year, for many years, and other Administrations. But, in my mind, the real problem exists in home life and parental involvement. I don't have any statistics close at hand (perhaps you have some, Dawn), but I recall that the educational performance is very strongly tied to a healthy home life. Our society has many dysfunctional families. By dysfunctional, I mean something other than a traditional husband/wife household. There are so many single-parent households, in which the parent is struggling just to get by, let alone being able to provide much support for the student. Further, the nurturing of the masculine and feminine sides, for both genders, is necessary for a contented and well-rounded student. Please, don't use this assertion as a tangent for promoting same-sex relationships. I will not respond to those arguments.
Fully half of the marriages end in failure, usually with children strewn in the path. Shared custody, shuffling of children between households, and adult bickering does not make for a home environment that fosters good learning and nurturing. Oh yes, the physical needs can be handled (e.g. food, shelter, clothing), but the emotional needs take a beating. This bleeds over to educational performance. To be sure, some students find their way through the maze of brokenness, and do exceptionally well in schools. But, I am doubting that this sector is very large. I have been around too long to witness the hazards of broken households and the outcome with regard to educational needs.
Of course, all this begs the question about what to do. Pouring money into school districts will not solve problems of dysfunctional households. I know many will not agree with me. I believe the answer lies within the spiritual component of people, starting with the parents. The loss of meaning and purpose in life, at the expense of materialism, entertainment, and efforts to pursue pleasure, contribute to selfishness and pride. Contentment is always an arm's length away, looking for completion in temporal things. Affluence contributes to the mix. As a result the parents' relationships get strained, and all this filters down to the children. Further strained relationships and ill-content make for anxious children. These are the ones showing up at school, unable to focus on the task of learning. In addition, parents are too often focused on things other than their children, and never instill an interest in learning. This failure to accept responsibility to do the task of parenting leaves the child in limbo, just being pushed off to school, allowing others to mold the minds of their children.
No, I know I've offered no simple answer to the issue at hand. It is indeed a complex one, and one that cannot be handled by government at any level. I offer no hope of optimism with the proposed program of yesterday. All others before have failed, or met with limited success. All this time, effort, and money will not change home life and parental involvement.
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