Who's in charge at West Mesa High School; adults who "require"
students to attend classes, or the students, who between them
failed to attend 88,000 classes this year? link
It amounts to each student missing 13 full school days last year.
The graduation rate at WMHS is 59%.
There might be a correlation.
The correlation extends to every manifestation of students in
charge; tardiness, truancy, bullying, lack of respect and
responsibility, and every other permitted though prohibited
misdemeanor. The more rules students choose to disobey,
the lower their likelihood of success.
Ask the leadership of the the APS, who is "in charge" in schools.
They will tell you, they are.
If a person makes a rule, and another person disobeys that rule,
who is "in charge"?
It makes no difference if those who make the rules are a school
board, or an administration, or teachers; when students break
rules deliberately, they are in charge.
That students are in charge at any given school, correlates
directly with the school's success rate. Where those with
education, experience and expertise are in charge, the
likelihood of success increases. Where students are in charge,
the likelihood of success diminishes.
Why is the out of control of students not on the table when
the reform of public education is being discussed?
Either it is because there are no real teachers at the table, or
they sit at the table in too few numbers to influence the discourse.
It is because those who do have a seat at the table; those with
the power, the resources and the obligation to ensure that adults
are in charge at school, have failed miserably. They have failed
miserably and they don't want to be held accountable for their
failure. So student behavior is simply never brought up when
the discussion is about what needs to be done to "fix" public schools.
Teachers have enough to do, just to teach well. To saddle
them with responsibility for the behavior of students who don't
come to class or obey the rules when they do, is a waste of a
precious and expensive resource.
It's time for Supt Winston Brooks
and the leadership of the APS to
step up and take responsibility for
allowing students to take charge in
schools.
Instead, his cronies at the Journal
give him another 20 column inches
to extoll the success at Rio Grande
High School. (no link provided)
Not to begrudge them their success,
but if the resources that they have invested at Rio Grande HS,
were invested at every school, every school would do better.
I am reminded about a line from a movie; two marines were
arguing about the relative worth of the F4 Phantom Fighter.
One observed;
"The F4 is a testament to the fact that with enoughRio Grande High School is testament to the fact that if you invest
horsepower, you can make a brick fly."
enough resources and pay close enough attention, you can make
a failing school fly. Much like Brooks pet project; AVID, link,
there is no wonder that devoting extraordinary resources and
attention to kids who are themselves extraordinary (based on
their willingness to make the requisite investments of their own)
they can succeed.
It implies the application of resources and attention that are
simply unavailable except in extraordinary circumstances.
What is available, in every circumstance, is to return control
in schools to the adults. And in so doing, the success rate at
every one of those schools will climb.
What is lacking in that regard is an administrative will.
What is lacking is the character and courage even to admit
there is a problem.
photo Mark Bralley
4 comments:
Teachers can't teach if the student is not in class.
I report chronic absences to: PARENTS-usually no change, or they argue I'm wrong.
GUIDANCE COUNSELORS- "What are we supposed to do? We've got more important issues to deal with!"
ADMINISTRATION- "This is a problem for parents &/or guidance counselors to handle"
STUDENTS- "Who needs your boring class anyway?" or "I was here all those days...your attendance is wrong!"
Good question... what is the solution?
The solution begins with ending the expectation that students will form a "thought choir" that thinks in unison for twelve grueling years.
Absenteeism is not a problem (except to the individual student) if s/he isn't expected to catch up or stay up, with students with better attendance.
The system creates the problem through cemetery seating instead of encouraging students to follow their educational path individually; at their own speed.
It is almost impossible in almost all school systems in the USA for a talented child to move beyond his/her grade level, to the level they can learn at.
For example, in a school I taught at before, a 7th grader,daughter of 2 physics professors, was more than ready for Algebra I, which is a 9th grade subject. The family had to get lawyers and fight the school board for her to go to an algebra class (which was in the same building as her middle school).
Why is it it that a 6th grade student that reads and writes at 8th grade level, not in an 8th grade Language Arts class?
These staunchy old US educational traditions like cemetary seating are killing our kids opportunities to learn!
i can say with experience that this problem is not just a west mesa problem. this truancy issue is more widespread, even within schools that are seemingly successful.
there are two main causes: administration and parents. admin does not enforce a strict attendance policy in fear of denying students credit, and thus having higher failure rates. if this culture of leniency was changed then society would respond. but it hasn't changed, and now we have parents who enable their students, calling them out of class for no reason at all. i have a least a dozen students each year take off a week here or there for a cruise, or for a hunting trip right in the middle of the semester. and of course these are not the students that can afford to miss such time. but it doesn't matter.
more and more students don't want to come to class and of course they always get what they want. god forbid anyone makes a student do something they don't want to. and without administrative policy enforcement parents will enable their kids year after year.
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