Re: Dropouts: a video podcast

["Horn, James" <jhorn@monmouth.edu>]

I second that.  JH

-----Original Message-----
From: arn-l-owner@interversity.org on behalf of Peter Campbell
Sent: Sun 5/7/2006 4:08 PM
To: arn-l@interversity.org
Subject: Re: [arn-l] Dropouts: a video podcast
 

On May 7, 2006, at 7:34 AM, Sherman Dorn wrote:

> It'd be necessary to confirm that with evidence from school  
> counselors that they are pressured to shift students into GED classes.

I think you're right to point out that we need actual evidence from  
school counselors. But how likely are we to get this? What school  
counselor in his/her right mind would go on record and volunteer the  
information that students are being deliberately counseled into the  
GED due to pressure from administrators who want to get rid of low- 
scoring students? And how many of these testimonials would it take  
before anyone took them seriously, i.e., as more than a disgruntled  
employee carping about working conditions? From what I gather, even  
in an ostensibly slam dunk case of corruption in Houston with the so- 
called "Houston Miracle," only one person to date has been charged  
with anything. Absent a plethora of highly credible testimonials from  
all over the state of Florida on this practice, such testimonials (if  
they ever occurred at all) could easily be dismissed by state and  
local administrators as "a few bad apples." As we saw in defense of  
corporate America in the wake of Tyco and Enron, Kozlowski, Lay, et  
al, were said to be "a few bad apples." And there endeth the calls  
for significant reform of corporations. Most recently, Abramoff is  
labeled "a bad apple," the call for significant lobbying reform dies  
down, and the House passes a bill that essentially maintains the  
status quo on lobbying.

So while I agree that it would be nice to have the actual evidence  
from school counselors, we will all be six feet deep before we see  
it. And while there is no smoking gun (at least that I know of) that  
connects the phenomenon of push-outs to the actual work that  
counselors do, I don't think it's that much of a stretch to suggest  
that there's a connection between the specific policy of NCLB and the  
change in graduation.

Peter Campbell