Fwd: Dropouts: a video podcast

[Peter Campbell <campbellp@mail.montclair.edu>]

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/education/july-dec04/dropouts_11-30.html

This report makes the phenomenon of high-school "push-outs" crystal  
clear. When calculating their graduation rates, Florida schools  
remove all students who are transferred to GED programs from their  
rolls. "If they're totally withdrawn from here, then they're not  
going to count against us. So in essence, they then improved our  
graduation rate if they withdraw . . ." says Karen Wilson, principal  
of Evans High School in Orlando. Evans' graduation rate has improved.  
In the last year, it was calculated, Evans referred 271 failing  
students into GED programs, thus taking them off its own rolls. That  
same year, its graduation rate rose from 61 percent to 66 percent,  
enough to satisfy state and federal requirements. But at the same  
time, the actual number of diplomas handed out fell from 412 to 354.  
In two years, Evans has transferred 440 students into GED programs.  
In that same time, only 14 enrolled.

Last year in Orlando, high schools transferred 1,201 teenagers to the  
GED; 315 actually enrolled and 135 earned a diploma. That leaves 886  
teenagers unaccounted for.

Thousands of Florida teenagers are disappearing from the rolls. Last  
year, the number of failing students transferred to the GED rose from  
11,615 to 17,144.

Begin forwarded message:

> From: John Merrow <jmerrow@merrow.org>
> Date: May 1, 2006 12:16:20 PM CDT
> To: John Merrow <jmerrow@merrow.org>
> Subject: Dropouts: a video podcast
>
> > Friends,
>
> >  "Dropout Nation" was Time Magazine's fear-inducing cover story on  
> > April 17th, a report produced in conjunction with Oprah, who  
> > devoted two programs to the subject.  But neither the magazine nor  
> > the television program reported on how EDUCATORS actually make the  
> > problem worse by 'cooking the books.'
>
> > You can see how Florida was making its dropouts 'disappear' on  
> > this week's video podcast, which was nominated for an Emmy for  
> > investigative reporting.  We didn't win (Dan Rather got the Emmy),  
> > but when I sat next to Florida Governor Jeb Bush at a luncheon not  
> > long after the NewsHour broadcast, he said, "You sure caused some  
> > trouble for us."
>
> John