April 18, 2006
It’s almost graduation time
Filed under: NYC DOE by Maisie @ 4:50 pm
Hearing the strains of “Pomp and Circumstance” yet? Some researchers sure are. Two new reports on graduation rates are coming out this week. Interestingly, they have diametrically opposite conclusions.
First out of the box is the Manhattan Institute’s prolific Jay Greene, whose “Leaving Boys Behind: Public High School Graduation Rates” is embargoed until midnight tonight. But no worries, there is little new here.
The title is oddly misleading since the report doesn’t focus on gender differences. He “finds” that boys’ graduation rates are lower, but lots of earlier studies could have told him that. The gist of his report is that graduation rates are scandalously lower than states and cities say they are, and that the gap between African-American and Hispanic vs. white graduation rates is also scandalous. He does update his data. He claims the New York City Class of 2003 graduation rate was 43 percent (presumably this is the four-year rate) compared to what the city found, a 53.4% on-time graduation rate that year. But Greene has reported these general findings several times already.
Actually, much of the new Greene report’s introduction is devoted to an attack on the Economic Policy Institute and its forthcoming report on graduation rates by Lawrence Mishel and Joydeep Roy. Now since that report is embargoed for Thursday, one day after Greene’s embargo is lifted, one has to wonder a little about Greene’s timing. Especially as Mishel and Roy find the opposite: that Greene and other scholars have grossly understated the graduation rate and made the public schools look far worse than they actually are.
The Mishel/Roy book is not yet out, but Mishel did write an op-ed in Education Week March 8, “The Exaggerated Dropout Crisis,” which says some of what he’s found. He uses data from the Census and Bureau of Labor Statistics (Mishel and Roy are economists) to calculate that the low graduation rates reported by Greene and others are very unlikely. The BLS workforce surveys show that 80 to 90 percent of all Americans have a regular high school diploma and 70-80 percent of all African-Americans have one. Not exactly the crisis Greene paints.
The dueling databases and methodologies here will be of interest to some and not others. The differences are too much for a late day blog post. But it would be good if some people checked this out carefully. This issue has legs–it will be with us for awhile and it has real consequence in the education world.
An early look, though, suggests Mishel and Roy are the more thorough and their analysis appears more developed. They go against the grain. Since a Harvard Civil Rights Project study a few years ago, everyone is saying that the Black and Hispanic graduation rates are lower than reported and it’s a conspiracy and a scandal. But at least in New York, that has not been proved at all. And Mishel (who’s liberal) won’t score political points with this. But facts are facts.
Mishel writes, “Don’t get me wrong. I am not satisfied with a national black dropout rate of 25 percent, or a much higher urban rate. We must fix this glaring social problem. But to solve it, we need to get our facts right, including the truth that high school graduation rates have been improving… Even with the most extreme assumptions about increased numbers of GEDs and incarcerations, there would still remain a real growth in regular diplomas for blacks and a narrowing the the black-white graduation gap.”
This is an important discussion that’s starting up here, so while the end of the year is in sight, don’t check out quite yet. Instead, check out these reports..
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I agree that this is an interesting and important debate. Perhaps we should invite Greene and Mishel to an online or traditional debate to see if we can get to the bottom of this! Would the UFT co-host a debate on the topic?
Ken
Comment by curious3 — April 21, 2006 @ 7:46 pm
http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/book_grad_rates#toc
The EPI report is enlightening … it trashes the ideologues, Greene and company, and gives a far more accurate view based on “gold standard” data … the anti public school/teacher union folk have a simple mantra … everything “public” is by definition bad … everything “private” is good … the marketplace rules … with a few exceptions, gas prices, cable fees, Walmart … in my view their goal is to create a Chinese type economy in the US … in the olden less politically correct days we would call the Chinese system by its proper name: Fascism …
Comment by Peter Goodman — April 22, 2006 @ 8:48 am
Thanks for the link, Peter. I would note that this report is funded by the AFT and the NEA:
“This report is part of EPI’s education research program, which has received funding from the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, the Spencer Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Metropolitan Life Foundation, and other contributors.”
Greene and others may receive funding from people on the “other side” of the issue, although the people that fund them probably have no obvious financial incentive like the AFT and NEA.
In any case, I like the idea of a debate. I am curious if others agree.
Ken
Comment by curious3 — April 22, 2006 @ 11:30 am
Manhattan Institute describes Greene’s work as follows:
“…education reform focuses on improving two main reforms of public education: school choice and accountability. School choice reforms (including charter schools and school vouchers) are dedicated to improving the options available to parents of children in public schools, and making public schools more directly accountable to parents for education outcomes.”
Greene and his ilk represent an anti public school space and the Manhattan Institute and other conservative foundations (Fordham Foundation, et. al.) churn out “research” to support their point of view.
If you view the Trustees of the Manhattan Institute you will find an array of the corporate elite … and access to funding to support their work. They have a strong ideological incentive to support a particular type of research with particular outcomes.
Simply put I do not see how vouchers, tax credits and non union charter schools will improve public schools …
Forty years ago the “answer” was “decentralization” and the “victims” of this failed reform are inner city children … we cannnot, once again, allow ideologues to condemn children of color another generation of failure.
Comment by Peter Goodman — April 22, 2006 @ 7:52 pm
Hey Peter,
Have you visited any of the charter schools in NYC? I find that visitors often come away with a better understanding of why people think they might improve public education.
Ken
Comment by curious3 — April 24, 2006 @ 5:55 am
Dueling grad rates…
A Jay Greene dropout/graduation report, and then comes Lawrence Mishel’s counterargument! Then Edwize gets into the game! And then the AFT NFTBlog says there will be a debate between the primary authors hosted by the Center on Education Policy. It sou…
Trackback by Sherman Dorn — April 24, 2006 @ 9:22 pm
It’s interesting that this duel of the databases, this obscure, wonky technical topic is to be debated in the ballroom of the National Press Club Thursday. Yes, it is hosted by the Center for Education Policy, not a particularly partisan group. Larry Michel and Jay Greene will duke it out from 10 a.m. to noon. If you are in Washington by all means try to go: National Press Club, 13th floor, 529 14th St. NW, Washington DC. To RSVP: Albert Lang: 202 955-9450 or ALang@commonworksllc.com
Comment by Maisie — April 25, 2006 @ 12:02 pm
Reflections on the Poor in Minority Schools: Past and Present
By Phyllis C. Murray
History is not everything” John Henrik Clarke once wrote, “but it is the starting point. History is a clock that people use to tell their time of day. It is a compass they use to find themselves on the map of human geography. It tells them where they are, but more importantly, what they must be.”
As educators we know what must happen to change history. And one by one we try in our classrooms. However, the failure of local and state governments to provide funding to economically poor citizens will compromise our efforts and the future of this great nation. “Recently, more economists are drawing the conclusions that a good education is one of the gateways to wealth creation for individuals as well as for nations.” (Education Trust) Yet, benign neglect seems to be the mantra of many in political office who turn their backs on the ones who need quality education the most.
The Campaign for Fiscal Equity is only one example of how the state is not providing adequate funding to NYC Public Schools. And as educators, we know that the resources needed to implement new programs designed by the city are inadequate. Thus, we should not be surprised to learn that “New York also stands out for neglecting to fairly fund poor and minority school districts. New York spends $2,280 less per student in its poorest districts than its does on students educated in its wealthiest school districts. Even after New York was ordered to deal with these funding gaps, policy makers have failed to take action.” (Education Trust Report 2005)
Educators are aware that economic poverty does not have to mean intellectual poverty. There are gifted and talented students among the economically poor and minority students. Therefore, many resourceful educators continue to teach without adequate funding. They use their own personal resources to compensate for this deficit. And these truly dedicated educators have seen miracles happen daily for years as their students’ dreams are realized. Fortunately, this is not a new phenomenon throughout the nation. Good Teachers have always made a difference in the lives of their students. Case in point:
Directly after the Emancipation Proclamation “the exceptionally gifted rose above the staggering obstacle of quasi-freedom,” said Martin Luther King at the UFT Spring Conference in 1964. “It is precisely because education is a road to equality and citizenship that it has been made more elusive for Negroes than many other rights. The warding off of Negroes from equal education is part of the historical design to submerge him in second class status.” And today we can see this happening as the rich-poor gap is allowed to widen in NYC, New Orleans, Alabama, Mississippi, and even Washington, DC, the nation’s capital.
King reminded UFTers in 1964 that: “education for all Americans, white and black, has always been inadequate. The richest nation on earth has never allocated enough of its abundant resources to build sufficient schools, to compensate adequately its teachers, and to surround them with the prestige their work justifies.” Therefore, when we read the report “Rich-Poor Gap Widens not only for individuals but for schools in general,” we cannot be surprised.
Yes, history is a clock. It tells us where we are, but more importantly, what we must be. If we are the union, we must continue to fight for equity for all. We must press on to City Hall; to Albany: to Washington, DC. in a quest to secure
public schools that reflect a democratic nation. Because, the children are waiting.
Phyllis C. Murray
UFT Chapter Leader
Region 2
Comment by phyllis c. murray — April 29, 2006 @ 3:29 pm
Are Teachers a Part of the Solution to the Plight of the -African American Male in Education?
By Phyllis C. Murray
Recently, I attended a forum in Mount Vernon, NY. The topic was: The Plight of the African American Male in Education: Part II. It provided Westchester residents with a stone of hope toward removing the growing mountain of despair which plagues our nation. Yesterday evening we witnessed a new trend: an infusion of exemplary programs which are already in place within Westchester High Schools which work daily, toward ameliorating an insidious problem which left unchecked negatively impacts society. The Woodlands Individualized Senior Experience; Ossinings’ High Hopes Expectations College Track; Byram Hills’ Intel Science Program; and Mount Vernon High School’s Business Club, are proof positive that there are already solutions to the heightening drop-out rate among African American Males in Westchester public schools. These programs are indeed, worthy of much praise and emulation. These programs should be replicated nationwide.
Charles Ogletree, Esq., the keynote speaker for the evening, advocated the inclusion of the African American
History within the curriculum. I firmly believe that African American history should also be infused in our
American History. It should also take its rightful place in textbooks and historical societies throughout the nation. African American History should not be relegated to one month in the shortest month in the year. The African American Heritage of this nation is older than the history of Westchester County. And the contributions of the African American men and women to the growth and development of our county and nation have been well documented. Therefore, it is imperative that our academic institutions provide access to this history.
Our public academic institutions must also provide free access for all citizens to a free education. And equity in education for all Americans must become our new national mantra. Surely, public education was what the early immigrants relied on as they attempted to move from abject poverty to prosperity; from lower class status to the middle or upper class status; from their mountain of despair to a stone of hope. Our public schools worked for
the children of early immigrants in America; it must work for all American children, today.
Yet, because of institutionalization of racism in our society today, many African American, like many new
immigrants, are trapped on an economic ladder which rests horizontally at the base of the walls which surround our inner cities. This cycle of failure can only be broken through education.
In 1964 Martin Luther King reminded us of the following:” It is precisely because education is a road to
equality and citizenship that it has been made more elusive for Negroes than many other rights. The warding off of Negroes from equal education is part of the historical design to submerge him in second class status.” Apparently, the nation was not listening when Dr. King spoke. And therefore today, if we are not a part of the solution to the plight of the African American male in Education, perhaps we just might be… part of the problem.
Comment by phyllis c. murray — April 29, 2006 @ 3:59 pm