Graduation rates are not the point

 Graduation rates are calculated after the fact.  By the time they are calculated, it by definition, too late to do anything to change them.

Low graduation rates are a poor indicator of why graduation rates are so low.  It's like asking a dead patient, why they died.

So why are they unacceptably low?  I have my opinions, you may have yours.  Mine is;

Graduation rates are low because we are failing to meet the individual needs of students.

It is because we continue to insist that they take a seat in one of five rows of six desks, there to join a "learning choir" to march lockstep through the next 12 years, as grueling as they are tedious for everyone involved.

If as I suppose, the ultimate goal of public education is to create independent lifelong learners, why is it not the immediate goal?  Why is it not our primary objective, our top priority?  Do we need a new model; is finally time to abandon cemetery seating once and for all?

There are a number of unheard voices in this dynamic, none more ironic, none more fundamentally indefensible than the unheard voice of teachers.  Not the voice of a handful of teachers on some meaningless task force or board somewhere, but the voice of every teacher.

APS teachers have between them, a hundred thousand years of ongoing experience in classrooms.  Many have advanced degrees, many have national certifications.  They all endure "professional development". What teachers don't have, is a seat at the table where decisions are made.

The result; individual student needs are not being met, and graduation rates are the proximate consequence.

There is only one true measure of the success public education;

Is it meeting the individual needs of every student?

There is only one true measure of the success of teachers;

Are they meeting students' individual needs?

One true measure of principals, senior administrators and school board members;

Are they meeting students' individual needs? 

 Is it time to stop beating around the bush.

beating around the bush

Not telling it like it is, not telling the truth directly. Often motivated from a desire not to speak frankly about the subject because the subject is likely to be painful; embarrassing, shaming, or incriminating.