Study: Mpls. Can't Even Graduate Half Its Students

[Mistacoolio20]

Originally Posted by Simple Living

Study: Mpls. Can't Even Graduate Half Its Students

CBS News Interactive: Education In America

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Seventeen of the nation's 50 largest cities had high school graduation rates lower than 50 percent, with the lowest graduation rates reported in Detroit, Indianapolis and Cleveland, according to a report released Tuesday.

The report, issued by America's Promise Alliance, found that about half of the students served by public school systems in the nation's largest cities receive diplomas. Students in suburban and rural public high schools were more likely to graduate than their counterparts in urban public high schools, the researchers said.

Nationally, about 70 percent of U.S. students graduate on time with a regular diploma and about 1.2 million students drop out annually.

"When more than 1 million students a year drop out of high school, it's more than a problem, it's a catastrophe," said former Secretary of State Colin Powell, founding chair of the alliance.

(Click on the link for the rest of the story. This is from WCCO.)

So what? Detroit only graduates 25% of it's class.

[kuan]

Originally Posted by MNNative

I found this article, it's from 2006 mind you, but I think it sort of lends to what we've been talking about (on one education thread or another).

The Wall Street Journal Online - Cross Country

It's funny since there has been a lot of talk about lower income families not encouraging education and how poorer kids are to blame, more or less, for messing up the schools. Yet this article is all about the opposite; just how much lower income families are searching for that right opportunity.

Can someone help me understand...
If low income kids are not attending traditional Mpls public schools anymore, then are most of those schools made up of middle and upper class income families?
In regard to this article, are they reporting that Mpls schools can't teach black kids? Is there a different way to teach people of different colors?

I guess I'm too unfamiliar with the school system to grasp the big picture.

Let me quote from that article

As a result, Minneapolis schools are losing both raw numbers of students and "market share." In 1999-2000, district enrollment was about 48,000; this year, it's about 38,600. Enrollment projections predict only 33,400 in 2008. A decline in the number of families moving into the district accounts for part of the loss, as does the relocation of some minority families to inner-ring suburbs. Nevertheless, enrollments are relatively stable in the leafy, well-to-do enclave of southwest Minneapolis and the city's white ethnic northeast. But in 2003-04, black enrollment was down 7.8%, or 1,565 students. In 2004-05, black enrollment dropped another 6%.

Enrollment is dropping from 38,600 to 33,400 for 07-08. That's a difference of 5,200, of about 15%. In 03-04 black enrollment was down 7.8%, and in 04-05 it was down 6%. She's cherry picking the years she wants to use as examples, but she does a poor job of doing it. Her examples actually show (assuming we pretend that they're from the same year like she's alluding to) that blacks are leaving the district at a lower rate than others.

[kuan]

Originally Posted by Mistacoolio20

So what? Detroit only graduates 25% of it's class.

That's like saying it's OK that my car gets 8mpg because there is at least one other that gets 6mpg.

[MNNative]

Kuan, thanks for pointing that out. I guess I didn't crunch the numbers myself. Sorry, guys, for posting a misleading article. I do still want to pose the question as to what affect minorities leaving for the burbs has on the Mpls school district.

And thank you for saying something about the Detroit comparison. I have to admit it drives me nuts when people compare places like that. Yes, I am all for a comparison of metropolitan areas for reference, but if I'm shopping around MINNESOTA schools or MINNESOTA neighborhoods, then I don't care what Detroit/Chicago/Miami/NY's norm is. I care about MINNESOTA's norm or what I have to choose from in my area. (Does that make sense?) There are reasons I don't live in Detroit/Chicago/Miami/NY/Etc...