Miami Dade Graduation Rates Among the Nations Worst (Jacksonville, Hialeah: low income, school district)

[DCkid]

Miami-Dade graduation rates among the worst - 04/02/2008 - MiamiHerald.com (broken link)

Anybody get around to reading this article. I saw a few people had questions about Miami high schools.


Any thoughts?

[Dro420]

It's quite sad. I go to the 2nd "best" public High School in the county, last year we graduated about 95% of our seniors. I wouldn't blame this all on the schools because honestly after being a Dade County Public School student all my life, the students are wild.

[TannerMan]

Kids are the same everywhere, its bad administration and not enough attention that leads to such bad grad rates, and its not even Miami thats alone in this, this whole country is becoming a joke when it comes to public schools, keep in mind Miami ranked 16th.
In other news Miami-Dade and Broward are amongst a group of school systems across the country nominated for an award rewarding progress in urban schools and Miami-Dade apparently has won before and always ranked near the top for the last 3 years.

[Chelito23]

Tanner,

I was an education major and worked in the public schools....and trust me, the prevailing knowledge in the field is that Florida schools are at the bottom of the bunch almost all across the board. That is not new, it has been like that and most liekly always will be.

I see you always try to put a positive spin on things in South Florida, and that is fine to help give a balanced view on things...

But to even attempt to say it is bad all over the U.S. is NOT true. OK, so there are 15 other districts as bad or worse than us...that is hardly everywhere. Our schools have countless problems, I know you are new to the area and haven't followed the district scandals and fiascos from years back like veteran residents and teachers...but trust me, things are not good (and I taught at Hialeah High and PSM 5 years ago).

Kids are NOT the same everywhere, there is a level of disrespect and aggression towards staff in the MDCPS that is shocking. I recommend you become a part time substitute teacher (all you need is an AA degree, and you can work anyday you like) and you will see first hand which statistics are more telling. I think it would do you good to actually experience Hialeah's schools and students, get to meet the parents...and you would understand that our problems are not normal or do not happen "everywhere" in the country either. And even if it was normal and like this all over the place, that is NOT an excuse, it is still total and utter dysfunction.


I have tons of crazy stories from my days as a teacher. Not all bad, but when I would meet teachers from other places around the coutry at conferences or what have you, their stories were never quite as off the wall or frightening as mine or my ex collegues'.

The district here has so many problems, the real issue is the quality of the kids coming in. They have no sense of civilized behavior, no ingrained values and a frightening lack of a sense of right and wrong. With these issues, learning goes to the back burner. It becomes crowd control, safety management and trying to motivate kids to stay in school, when it is easier for them to make money other ways.

Being a teacher here, you will be summoned to court hearings, have contact with police, learn to press charges, BellSouth will give you free Privacy Director and not list your number as a courtesy...there is a reason for that. I doubt BellSouth offers that service to teachers in South Carolina!

Just because you are fortuante to have kids at one of the few A schools does not mean this is representative of the district. Wait until your kids go to Middle School or Goleman. That will open you eyes.

[DCkid]

I think its common with most urban area schools. Key word "urban area" but kids are not the same everywhere. Coming from the DC area, DC public schools remind me so much of schools in NW Miami Dade. You would also probably hear about similar situations in Detroit (Boy if you think Miami is bad you aint seen NOTHING YET,), city of Baltimore, and other low income urban areas. Miami is no acception, it has low income urban areas just like any other major cities. Here is the complete listing.....



Mesa, Ariz. Mesa Unified District 77.1

San Jose, Calif. San Jose Unified 77.0

Nashville, Tenn. Nashville-Davidson Co. School Dist. 77.0

Colorado Springs, Colo. Colorado Springs School District 76.0

San Francisco San Francisco Unified 73.1

Tucson, Ariz. Tucson Unified District 71.7

Seattle Seattle School District 67.6

Virginia Beach, Va. Virginia Beach City Public Schools 67.4

Sacramento, Calif. Sacramento City Unified 66.7

Honolulu Hawaii Department of Education 64.1

Louisville, Ky. Jefferson County School District 63.7

Long Beach, Calif. Long Beach Unified 63.5

Arlington, Texas Arlington ISD* 62.7

Memphis, Tenn. Memphis City School District 61.7

San Diego San Diego Unified 61.6

Albuquerque, N.M. Albuquerque Public Schools 60.8

El Paso, Texas El Paso ISD* 60.5

Charlotte, N.C. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools 59.8

Wichita, Kan. Wichita Public Schools 59.6

Phoenix Phoenix Union High School District 58.3

Austin, Texas Austin ISD* 58.2

Washington District of Columbia Public Schools 58.2

Fresno, Calif. Fresno Unified 57.4

Boston Boston Public Schools 57.0

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth ISD* 55.5

Omaha, Neb. Omaha Public Schools 55.1

Houston Houston ISD* 54.6

Portland, Ore. Portland School District 53.6

Las Vegas Clark County School District 53.1

San Antonio San Antonio ISD* 51.9

Chicago City of Chicago School District 51.5

Tulsa, Okla. Tulsa Public Schools 50.6

Jacksonville, Fla. Duval County School District 50.2

Philadelphia Philadelphia City School District 49.6

Miami Miami-Dade County School District 49.0

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City Public Schools 47.5

Denver Denver County School District 46.3

Milwaukee Milwaukee Public Schools 46.1

Atlanta Atlanta City School District 46.0

Kansas City, Mo. Kansas City School District 45.7

Oakland, Calif. Oakland Unified 45.6

Los Angeles Los Angeles Unified 45.3

New York New York City Public Schools 45.2

Dallas Dallas ISD* 44.4

Minneapolis, Minn. Minneapolis Public Schools 43.7

Columbus, Ohio Columbus Public Schools 40.9

Baltimore Baltimore City Public School System 34.6

Cleveland Cleveland Municipal City Sch.Dist. 34.1

Indianapolis Indianapolis Public Schools 30.5
Detroit Detroit City School District 24.9




Can you believe Detroit has a 24.9 percent graduation rate?

[JacobMAX]

Originally Posted by DCkid

Miami-Dade graduation rates among the worst - 04/02/2008 - MiamiHerald.com (broken link)

Anybody get around to reading this article. I saw a few people had questions about Miami high schools.


Any thoughts?

Foreknowable that the graduation rates are bad in Miami high schools.

Unfortunately the high schools are bad in Miami ( except a few Public schools and Private/Charter schools ).

[TannerMan]

Chelito the whole Miami-Dade being nominated thing was to show what a joke it must be not to put a light spin into it, I know schools are bad I dont think Ive ever said otherwise my kid isn't staying in public schools for too long, but just take a look at the list, there is something wrong with this country when nationally the graduation rate is not any better. Thats not to "lighten" the problem in Miami, more so to look at the reall bigger issue.

And I still believe all kids are the same, you know generally at that high school age they get rebelious and act up, Ive been to many high school, hey I went to a pretty average school in LA standards and fights were normal, kids would talk back to teachers like it was nobodys buisness and asthetically the schools were being destroyed, I ended up going to a private school for my last 2 and half years and it wasnt that much different. And a couple of years ago my wife worked for about 2 months in a Utah school and while i was there the stories the teachers would tell would surprise anybody. And Im sure its no different in Miami, I plan going with a charter school here in Hialeah or will look for a private school for my kid when he reaches high school probaly even middle school.

[rogerbacon]

One thing to point out is that this study measured on-time graduation rate. I would guess that that measn if a student was helf back a year (yeah, like that happens these days) then he would not be considred graduating on-time. Also, I'm sure it does not count night school or GED. So the numbers probably look worse than they are.
That having been said, Miami-Dade's schools are terrible. I agree with the above posters who talk about how bad the kids are. I too could tell stories that would shock and astound from my teaching days.
The real sad thing is that most of these students cound be saved from themselves if the schools were allowed to get tough early on. Putting tough rules in place and then following through with punishment would get through to most of the kids. The reason they act up is because they know they can get away with it. Even "good" kids will act up if they see other kids getting away with it.
We should not be afraid to expel students who, by their behavior, prove that they do not deserve to be in the classroom. There are plenty of low-paying jobs they can get. Sure, they will have tough lives but you can be sure that they will make their own children behave in school to get a good education. It will take time to turn it around but it could be done if there was the political will there. We didn't get in this mess overnight and we won't get out of it overnight but it's not too late to start. We simply lack the will to do what needs to be done. Instead, it is much easier to throw money at it and ignore the problem. After all, the policy makers don't send THEIR kids to public school.

[PBCboy]

I read in a book on education that Hispanic students do the worst academically. Could that be the reason behind this? I know it's true in Palm Beach County, where most of the Hispanic-majority schools have abysmal ratings (like 2 out of 10). But then again, Cuban students seem to have integrated better into American schools than the Mexican/Guatemalan ones found here.

[compelled to reply]

The most Hispanic school in Broward is the highest performing. Go figure.