Miami Dade Graduation Rates Among the Nations Worst (Hialeah, Fort Lauderdale: low crime, unemployment)

[PBCboy]

Originally Posted by compelled to reply

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

Interesting. I guess it has to do with cultural aspects then. I'm assuming that most of the Hispanics there are Venezuelan and most of them that have come here are wealthy and have transitioned to America quite well.

But it's the exact opposite here, in the areas with large Hispanic populations (Palm Springs, West Palm Beach, Lake Worth, etc.) the schools do atrociously academically and are plagued with problems such as gang violence and students that have trouble with the English language.

Perhaps Miami-Dade schools are suffering from this as well? I know the Doral schools do well academically (another area with a high Venezuelan percentage).

[compelled to reply]

Actually they come from a lot of different countries but it's also one of the most affluent schools with the most involved parents.

In Lake Worth or in large swaths of Dade County the schools have the highest amount of disadvantaged students OR the lowest amount of parental involvement. Public schools in general don't work unless the students are motivated and the parents give them the basis and support they need, and there is nothing any amount of funding or programs can do for that.

[PBCboy]

Originally Posted by compelled to reply

Actually they come from a lot of different countries but it's also one of the most affluent schools with the most involved parents.

In Lake Worth or in large swaths of Dade County the schools have the highest amount of disadvantaged students OR the lowest amount of parental involvement. Public schools in general don't work unless the students are motivated and the parents give them the basis and support they need, and there is nothing any amount of funding or programs can do for that.

But you have to wonder what the reasons behind some of these "worse performing" schools are. Hialeah is not a bad area (sure, it's not the greatest, but it's safe for a city its size) and yet it performs worse than schools in Doral. Could it be an income gap that is responsible for this? Different types of cultures? Immigrants that have just arrived to the U.S. and haven't handled the fundamentals of the education system here yet? But then again, that doesn't explain the discipline problems TannerMan mentioned a page back.

And also, I believe most of Doral's population is made up of immigrants yet those schools do well academically. Asian immigrants excel in school. And there were two European immigrants in my school and they were the brightest students in the class. Personally, I feel it has to do with upbringing.

[kevinkagy]

Actually, blacks do a lot worse academically in this country than Hispanics. It's extremely unfortunate, but this country is still so racist, that we still have blacks not able to succeed because they're given the worst and live in the worst parts of the city. And unfortunately, these areas tend to be the areas with the worst crime, and thus don't attract other races to diversify and integrate. Sad but true.

And in response to PBCboy, academic performance has EVERYTHING to do with upbringing. Why do you think Asians do so well in school? It doesn't matter whether they live in Liberty City, Downtown or Coral Gables, their strict academic upbringing forces them to study hard and do good. It's part of East Asian culture and is an obvious personality trait. Many White Hispanics and White Non-Hispanics have this academic mentality too, and thus succeed in school.

[PBCboy]

Originally Posted by kevinkagy

Actually, blacks do a lot worse academically in this country than Hispanics. It's extremely unfortunate, but this country is still so racist, that we still have blacks not able to succeed because they're given the worst and live in the worst parts of the city. And unfortunately, these areas tend to be the areas with the worst crime, and thus don't attract other races to diversify and integrate. Sad but true.

And in response to PBCboy, academic performance has EVERYTHING to do with upbringing. Why do you think Asians do so well in school? It doesn't matter whether they live in Liberty City, Downtown or Coral Gables, their strict academic upbringing forces them to study hard and do good. It's part of East Asian culture and is an obvious personality trait. Many White Hispanics and White Non-Hispanics have this academic mentality too, and thus succeed in school.

Actually, I read about it, here are the rankings from best to worst by race in the United States (this excludes certain races, though):

1. Asian
2. Caucasian
3. Black
4. Hispanic

Is it due to racism for blacks? I really don't think so. I saw a video of students in Washington D.C. ripping apart a gym in a school. Can't blame the Evil White Devil™ for that.

Also, many of the poor performing black schools in Palm Beach County contain students that are mostly immigrants and not of African descent. Their families then, for the most part, are not linked to racism Africans experienced in America.

[compelled to reply]

The schools in Broward County anyway with the highest amount of black students also have the most funding, the most innovative programs and the nicest facilities. Of course there are exceptions, for example Boyd Anderson is in bad shape as far as the building goes, but you can't cry racism on that one because Cooper City HS and Western HS are in crappy shape too, they are mostly white. Call crappy school board on that one. Yet despite the fact the latter two schools are dumps, they managed to graduate most of their students and outperform most of the schools. And which school get the least funding per capita? Cypress Bay. Yeah. That's right. Cypress Bay. In Weston. Has nothing to do with race (the last one is very diverse), has nothing to do with funding, has nothing to do with the building, it has to do with the support at home and the levels of parental involvement throughout the educational process. Most of the black majority schools receive the most funding and probably have the most to offer in terms of education and what not, but in the lower income black neighborhoods the parents and students don't seem to be willing to take advantage of it.

About those programs, some of the inner city, black dominated schools have seen success (Fort Lauderdale HS and South Plantation HS are not doing bad at all), and others are basically money pits (Boyd Anderson, Blanche Ely)

[TannerMan]

I doubt its about race, look at Detroit and other cities with worse school rankings with little hispainics.

[compelled to reply]

Makes sense considering Hispanics aren't a race.

[TannerMan]

Well i was refering to PBCboys list.

[DCkid]

Minneapolis, Denver and Milwaukee aren't majority minority cities (I'm assuming). When push comes to shove it comes down to parenting. If I bought home a C on my report card, I got smacked in the face. So I wanted to get as little C's or below as possible to limit the number of times I got smacked in the face. And I'm a better man now because of that.

Parents need to lay the ground work at a young age, so that teachers can do their job when the time comes. What right now would motivate a top notch school teacher to move to Miami and teach at one of these high schools?