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I'm going to throw a different view on the fire here. Students need to be IN school............not arriving late or getting checked out early. I'm extremely familiar with a few WCPSS schools and you should have seen the early checkouts (or entirely absent) on the Friday before Labor Day so everyone could squeeze in that last beach trip. To paraphrase an earlier post in this thread: "They had all summer to do that."
And yes, there were meetings yesterday after the students left. And no, I'm not a teacher.
Parents need to instill in their children that school is important--not just a convenient baby sitter when nothing else is going on. A teacher can't teach a child who isn't in class.
I won't change anyone's mind here, but thanks for listening............
I'm going to throw a different view on the fire here. Students need to be IN school............not arriving late or getting checked out early. I'm extremely familiar with a few WCPSS schools and you should have seen the early checkouts (or entirely absent) on the Friday before Labor Day so everyone could squeeze in that last beach trip. To paraphrase an earlier post in this thread: "They had all summer to do that."
And yes, there were meetings yesterday after the students left. And no, I'm not a teacher.
Parents need to instill in their children that school is important--not just a convenient baby sitter when nothing else is going on. A teacher can't teach a child who isn't in class.
I won't change anyone's mind here, but thanks for listening............
Just from reading a few replies you get the feeling the status quo is firmly intrenched. People like it the way it is. Especially the teachers and the hordes of administrators. The only change they would support....more money.
It's really a shame that the graduation rate is so low. The high school I attended is right around 80%. The high school I currently teach at in another state is around 92%.
There's quite a bit of straw-manning going in here.
I've not picked up on anyone saying there is no room for improvement. However, some are focused on the gains that have been made and how to keep moving in that direction while others seek to tear down and criticize, using all fluff and no substance to do so.
Orange County Public Schools had a graduation rate of 85.6 NOT Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School District. CHCCS had a graduation rate of 90.7%, which is 10 percentage points higher than Wake. Of course, the systems aren't comparable in size, but contrary to popular belief, there is significant poverty in CH-Carr as well as wealth, so it's not just a system for the well-off (believe me, I know this firsthand!). Anyway, I wanted to set the record straight, and going with Bo's example, for a class of 500, 411 would graduate in Wake, while 453 would graduate in CH-C.
Also, looking at some other big school systems, the Wake County graduation rate is not impressive for a fairly well-off, educated area. The other two "big city" systems in NC were both higher, with Guilford County having a graduation rate of 88.5% and Charlotte's being 85.2%. And since I like to compare where I came from - looking at my former school district - Fairfax County, VA which is often compared to Wake County in size, their 4-year graduation rate last year was 92%.
I think michgc's post deserves a repost.
Wake County, while big, did not have as many graduates as other similar big systems in NC (Charlotte-Mecklenburg, or Guilford County). What are those other big systems doing that Wake is not?
Why does Chapel Hill Carrboro have a higher grad rate? Better students? Better teachers? More money per pupil (certainly so, but is that the deciding factor)? Maybe even a later high school start time (high school starts at 8:45)? As far as I know, CHCCS doesn't have more days in the school year or more hours or less professional development so I don't think those issues are big factors. I believe CHCCS averages about 20% free and reduced lunch as a school system, so while there is wealth there is also poverty as michgc mentioned.
What is Charlotte-Mecklenburg doing to get an 85.2% rate compared to WCPSS's 82.2%?
Overall the state high school graduation rate has risen a lot since they started tracking and they are touting that:
2014 NC HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION RATE HIGHEST IN STATE HISTORY
Since 2006, the first year the state reported a four-year cohort graduation rate, the percentage of students graduating from high school in four years or less has risen 15.5 percentage points – from 68.3 percent to 83.8 percent. North Carolina's 2014 graduation rate of 83.8 percent is the highest recorded in the state's history.
And I have to take issue with this little bit of spin in the original WRAL article:
Quote:
Several other local school districts, including Nash-Rocky Mount, Weldon City and Northampton, Hoke, Warren, Vance, Halifax and Person counties, had high school graduation rates between 70 and 77 percent.
Since when is Northampton County "local" compared to Wake? Methinks WRAL was trying to make us feel better by throwing in all the poverty stricken counties with lower grad rates.
Just from reading a few replies you get the feeling the status quo is firmly intrenched. People like it the way it is. Especially the teachers and the hordes of administrators. The only change they would support....more money.
No, they don't just want more money and status quo.
They want respect of the parents to let them do their jobs without second-guessing every grade little Tommy gets. They want the ability to keep the children in class and not have to send homework home with Tommy who is going on an "educational" cruise next week.
They want to be able to TEACH and not be bogged down in the administrative work that must be done outside of class, because God forbid, they take their eyes off of Tommy for one minute and something happen. And if it does happen, they get a stern talking-to or even fired because the parent is upset.
Do you have a job where someone is always analyzing what you do EVERY. SINGLE. MINUTE. of the day? Can you take a bathroom break when you need to? Do you get to eat lunch or are you dealing with a child in crisis who needs you at the moment? Can you go home when you want or do you have to wait with that one student whose parent didn't come pick them up because they see school as free day care?
Again, I don't expect you to agree with me, but I had no idea what went on in a school until I started spending a lot of time in some. Walk a mile in someone's shoes before you judge them.
Whether they will admit to it or not, WCPSS has been tracking the graduation rates since my children were in school (late 80's to the mid 90's) Seems to me (just going from memory) they changed the method of calculation about 8 years ago or so which in itself showed improvement.
So, "What is Charlotte-Mecklenburg doing to get an 85.2% rate compared to WCPSS's 82.2%?
Does anyone think these rates are even marginally acceptable????? Where I grew up (Ohio) very few ever quit school. I knew of 2 in a high school of 2000. Ones that wanted to quit were not allowed by the parents!
So ask yourself, why are children in North Carolina allowed to quit without parental consent???? Does that make sense to anyone? If you want to make an immediate improvement, CHANGE THE LAW!
Whether they will admit to it or not, WCPSS has been tracking the graduation rates since my children were in school (late 80's to the mid 90's) Seems to me (just going from memory) they changed the method of calculation about 8 years ago or so which in itself showed improvement.
So, "What is Charlotte-Mecklenburg doing to get an 85.2% rate compared to WCPSS's 82.2%?
Does anyone think these rates are even marginally acceptable????? Where I grew up (Ohio) very few ever quit school. I knew of 2 in a high school of 2000. Ones that wanted to quit were not allowed by the parents!
So ask yourself, why are children in North Carolina allowed to quit without parental consent???? Does that make sense to anyone? If you want to make an immediate improvement, CHANGE THE LAW!
I can't find any recent data but from 2010-2011 Ohio was at 80% vs NC's 78%. I spent a year living in Cleveland... it's not what I would call an educational mecca, institutionally or culturally. Just saying.
Cleveland Metro School District had a 59.3% graduation rate in '13. Ouch. That's pretty crazy. With the way Cuyahoga County is broken up it'd probably be incredibly difficult, but it would be interesting to see a county wide rate.
Last edited by behan; 09-06-2014 at 04:46 PM..
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