Ten Things to Know About Public High Schools and 'Dropout Factories'

Robert Balfanz, Johns Hopkins University, has done nothing to clarify this situation by coining the phrase" Drop-Out Factories". This does not seem like a legitimate way to begin a constructive converstion to actually solve the problem.

Yes, please drop in more Money into our K - 12 education system, I hope they will drawn in it instead of improving. When there are more politics then educating then this is the result. Children need good family environment and support from parents to succeed not politic.

And how much of this $95 billion is going to be consumed by the teachers, unions and administrators for their own benefit? History tells us most of the money won't get to where it's needed.

Let's see. I'm a 8th grade teacher. Where do I think the money needs to go?

First, 15k to starting teachers (bringing up the amount to around 48k a year gross for strarting teachers in this state. 20 k for teachers with masters degrees (so that a teacher with a masters starts at around 55k.) and 30k more for teachers who have undergone rigorous certification processes to be master teachers; IE teachers who teach other teachers while also teaching classes. So a master teacher would start in this school district at around 65k a year. If you want professional teachers then pay them at a professional rate!

Two: computer tracked map testing for all students. Map testing is a computer program that adjusts the questions to find the point as which a student will answer 50% correctly and 50% incorrectly. Map testing finds out what a kid does and doesn't know. TIE IN SALARY RAISES TO A PERCENTAGE IMPROVEMENT IN EITHER THE CLASS AVERAGE (the easy way) OR OVER EACH STUDENT'S YEARLY PROGESS. In other words if a student enters my class they should leave it knowing about 40% more than they did going into it. Some will know more. Some will know much more. Some will know much less. But instead of implementing an arbitrary merit pay system, pay teachers according to student progress.

3. Build a facility for high discipline instruction. This isn't detention, which translates to "waste a student's time." These are classes for disruptive students with class sizes no larger than 6. Take these students OUT of the regular class room but still provide them an intensive education that has strong emphasis on personal discipline.

4. Expell. Some students, for reasons of personality, upbringing, or choice, can not be educated by the public school system. Expell them. Get them out of school. Make school a privilage, not a right to be abused. For those who are expelled, allow funding for charter and opportunity schools to pick up those who are unteachable in the school system. Expulsion should be used rarely, but it must be a tool for schools.

5. Extend the school year by 20 days, and move 10 days from summer vacation to winter and spring vacation accordingly. 3 months is a bomb on academic progress. Students rarely have the discipline to do summer reading or work and teachers lose weeks of time in recovery before making progress in a student's academic progress.

6. Vocation vocation vocation. Not all students are interested in going to college. Give them art, music, and shop classes to put value in attending school. If school has nothing to offer, why go? Fund vocational programs and give students an alternative to academic classes.

Somber
12:41PM May 23rd 2009
Let's see. I'm a 8th grade teacher. Where do I think the money needs to go?

First, 15k to starting teachers (bringing up the amount to around 48k a year gross for strarting teachers in this state. 20 k for teachers with masters degrees (so that a teacher with a masters starts at around 55k.) and 30k more for teachers who have undergone rigorous certification processes to be master teachers; IE teachers who teach other teachers while also teaching classes. So a master teacher would start in this school district at around 65k a year. If you want professional teachers then pay them at a professional rate!

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This is precisely why teachers get a "bad rap" and why a good portion of the population turns a blind eye or deaf ear to whatever follows. 9 times out of 10 when you ask an education "professional" what's wrong with the system, the first thing out of their mouths is that they're not paid enough.

If any other "professional" was asked by their employer to explain the poor performance of an operation they were were involved in and they began the conversation by stating that they weren't compensated enough, they'd probably find themselves unemployed in short order.

It's hard to believe that a group of folks as highly educated as teachers hasn't been able to learn this simple lesson after so many years of having it thrown right back in their faces.

Excellent piece, but Mr. Duncan is going to find that the unions really do not want to change! To achieve goals, standards have to be imposed and measured throughout the year. What do you think would happen if the metrics led back to an unqualified teacher? Would we give that teacher five years to obtain the skills and knowledge to teach the subject she is being paid to teach -- probably at tax payer's expense??

Would add one item to Mr. Duncan's 'top ten', and that would be year round school. We are no longer an agrarian society, and compared to the competitive societies we are competing against, we can no longer afford the knowledge loss that occurs each summer.

GOOD LUCK MR. DUNCAN, and do not let the unions dictate our ultimate demise!

I believe that Somber's ideal ideas are great but not practical. he has to lose the letter m from his name and become sober. I am a high school math teacher and have been teaching fo about 30 years. Money is every thing. When I accepted the job, I knew that I have to do what I was committed to do. The biggest problem is to give so much power in the hand of one person, the pricipal. Even if he is qualified for it. I believe that finance and academic sections should be separated and should be left to qualified people in the field. The future of our children should not be molded by a politicians. Our kids are as smart as any kid in this world and have more of everything than any other kid in this world. We have to give them the right environment for education and do not let the politicians to use them as a tool.

Nobody wants to touch the "third rail" of education, i.e. race and/or ethnicity. And that also means it is not money that is the problem. It is the culture associated with the ghettos. Need I bother with the details? No, because it is evident but nobody will talk about it. I taught for seven years in the minority part of town and it was a joke. "Dropout Factories" is an appropriate appellation and it will only get worse as the minority school population becomes the majority,which it already is in most large cities. It is an attitude and the tired notion that it is a self-esteem problem is partly true, but the problem is not lack of self-esteem; it is too much self-esteem. End of conversation and don't even bother with cries of racism. It is a wornout blunderbuss of an excuse and if you think Al Charlatan and Jess Jack..... are still relevant then keep screaming for more money and I guess Obama will spend more on education, but it will not solve the problem. Maybe if Obama appointed Dick Cheney to head the Department of Education he could use EITs and get some results. Yes that is a joke. Promising every student a free college education is laughable. It will only produce more sociology, ethnic studies, and women's studies major and they can go out and be community organizers like Obama and get paid by the govenment to teach people how to get money from the government. Grade inflation starting in the 60s has made most liberal arts degrees useless. Why not get most of these young people on track to a secure future. The USA is short hundreds of housands of nurses and technians and those jobs pay quite well and it keeps them off of the streets. OKay it is late and I am tired and I really try to avoid these types of discussions because I think PC crowd will dismiss me with anger and accuse me of all sorts of hate speech and I am made of teflon and I have a pretty good track record of knowing, workin, dealing with, and spent plenty of time with Blacks and Mexicans in my life. Even had a black female housemate for 3-4 years. OK beddy by time...... And you morally superior Liberals don't be too hard on me. I am 67 and have seen a lot of the change since the 50s but it only works when you students with the right attitude. The one with attitude are going to have to discover a different way to survivel

Duncan is correct when he says: "Our expectations for our teenagers in this country are far too low." The expectations that ultimately are the ones that count are the students expectations of themselves.

That is the focus of a simple project started in our inner-city Dallas middle school in 2005. Students focus on their own goals for their own future. They usually set much higher goals than the adults around them. Those are documented in letters students write to themselves before leaving 8th grade. Those letters are the focus for much thought. This letter to themselves is placed into a self-addressed envelope. After a Language Arts class photo holding these letters, the students place their letters into a 350-pound vault that functions at the School Archive, a time-capsule that holds the letter until the 10-year 8th grade class reunion. They all receive their letters back at that reunion. They also will be invited to speak with the then current 8th grade classes about their recommendations for success. Students are warned to expect questions at that talk such as "Would you do anything differently if you were 13 again?" This simple focus on the future has helped for 9th to 10th grade attrition rates to go down over 26%. That is considered a very good return for a project costing less than $2 per 8th grade student.

The last thing we need in Pennsylvania is more money for teachers. If Pennsylvania wants to improve education all it has to do is destroy the teachers union. No more tenure, yes teachers, you all need to join the real world. This means if you aren't getting the job done, you can be fired. No more guaranteed jobs for life.

Another problem tenure creates is how difficult it becomes for young teachers to find a job. Older teachers, who know they cannot be terminated, become very complacent and lazy. Competition is a wonderful thing and should be reintroduced in Pennsylvania's educational system. In fact, I think anybody who is paid with tax dollars, however these dollars are generated, should be constantly scrutinized for competency. So, if you aren't cutting it, you get cut.

Next, no more tax dollars for pensions. The school district I live in spends 35 cents out of every tax dollar on pensions (25%) and health care (10%). This is way out of line. They can go the 401K or IRA route alone, like millions of us who are outrageously taxed to pay for these goodies. Unbelievable, 35% of my confiscated property tax money goes to pension and health care plans for teachers. Before any salary, books, facilities or transportation.

Also, if the teachers want to go on strike. Fine, go ahead. However, if they do, the district should be able to fire them all and hire new teachers to replace the strikers. No more bringing a district to it's knees to give teachers even more money and better benefits.

Throwing more money at the system will not work if there is no accountability for teachers. It hasn't worked in Pennsylvania.

1) Get rid of "No child left behind," it has become "No child gets ahead." Curriculum has been dumbed down with a focus on social work rather than education.
2) Administrators need to audit classes regularly. I've seen teachers rely on canned tests riddled with mistakes - and not check them. I've also seen teachers more concerned with indoctrinating kids with political dogma than in actually teaching a subject.
3) Get rid of bad teachers - no matter how long they've been teaching. If they're bad, they're bad. They bring the whole system down.

The problem with U.S. schools is not lack of money. The problem is that the schools are run by a bureaucratic government monopoly, which is under no competitive or community pressures.
We expect good service from businesses because we know and they know we can go somewhere else if they don't provide it.
States need to stop excepting fed money that comes with strings.
The way to improve American education is to open the system to choice and competition:
Give parents the freedom to send their children to schools that they choose. Get the innovation of the for-profit sector looking for ways to deliver more education for less money.
30 years of federal involvement has done nothing to improve our education system. We should eliminate the Dept of Education and its regulations and subsities that have not worked to improve education and give that 30 billion in tax cuts to the American people to choose where they want thier children educated.
Congress should affirm the wisdom of the Founders in not granting the federal government any power over education and return that function of education to the states, localities, and families where it can be managed best.
Have we learned nothing in the past 30 years? We're spending more than twice what we spent, per pupil, 30 years ago when test scores started sliding. If money could solve the problems of American Education in schools, surely it would have done so by now.
So is Obama's plan real reform? I think not.
Spending billions upon billions to save jobs in a system that's seen huge staffing increases, skyrocketing per-pupil expenditures, but student-achievement stagnation is not forcing reform, it's rewarding failure.
Its your money!

The school system speaks for itself depending on location ,,garbage in garbage out,,,and no amount of cash will change that,,,

Both of my kids fell victim to the problems in our highschools.

They became bored, unmotivated and felt as if they were being warehoused and treated like animals. The teachers were too busy keeping problem kids at bay, and no one really got to learn anything. We decided to homeschool, with a course of studies that each of the kids took part in planning. They both completed their studies, passed all exams and recieved their certifications. Our daughter started college approx. 2 years earlier than she would have, if she stayed in public schools.

I don't know what the problem is, or even where to begin to solve it, but it sure looks like it comes from the administration, and the lack of good solid teachers. Its not like it was back in my day, teachers actually taught, not just socialized with the students, then try to cram to get the necessary tasks done.

They are teachers, not friends.