In southeast Delaware County education is a prevailing community issue. Schools, in particular, face a handful of challenges from high school dropouts to poor performance on standardized testing. It will take a whole community acting together, like the recent high school dropout summit, to begin moving past the wide array of educational challenges that schools and communities face every day.
Recently we have seen the Federal Government taking action to more accurately assess the dropout rate. Starting this year, Pennsylvania, along with all other states, will be making changes to how they measure the graduation rate. The previous method of calculation focused specifically on the graduation rates of the senior class. Starting in 2012 the new method will be based on a “four year cohort graduation rate”. This means they will calculate how many students have dropped out from the beginning of freshman year to the end of senior year. The new method reflects essentially the amount of students dropping out over the course of four years as opposed to focusing on the last year of high school only. Unfortunately, this four-year method will without a doubt reflect a higher dropout rate. These higher numbers, although more accurate, could also lead to a whole new array of problems in regards to funding and schools struggling to meet these criteria.
As an agency for community change we have to ask ourselves what kind of action we will take when faced with the stark reality of higher dropout rates. How can we help re-engage these youth? How can we prevent them from being counted in this large statistic? What can we do about the root causes that influence the dropout rate?
What do you think of the four-year measurement?
Do you think a more accurate measurement will help strengthen our education system? Do you think it will make existing challenges even harder to overcome?
Tell us what you think.
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