Leaders from a cross-section of the Augusta community will come together this summer to tackle the issue of high school dropouts by talking frankly about the problem, evaluating existing efforts and developing a comprehensive plan to keep children in school.
The Richmond County school system is one of 105 agencies nationwide to receive a grant from the America's Promise Alliance to conduct a dropout-prevention summit. America's Promise is a children's advocacy group founded by former Secretary of State Colin Powell.
"We have to have an educated society," said Tina Marshall-Bradley, the co-chairwoman of the local summit team and special assistant to the provost at Paine College. "I'm actually very, very excited about our strategy."
Planners for the June 24 summit are reviewing data and analyzing efforts to determine what is being done to address the issue, who is being served, who isn't and where services are being duplicated.
Often educators identify a problem, such as dropouts, but treat the symptom instead, Dr. Marshall-Bradley said. The intent is to find the source of the dropout problem and develop a five-year action plan.
Committees are already being formed to address the five promises of America's Promise -- caring adults, safe places, a healthy start, effective education and opportunities to help others.
Richmond County Director of Student Services Carol Rountree said the summit, which will include student representatives, will also seek to learn what in the neighborhoods draws students away from school.
"We do a lot of talking at kids, but we need to ask them," Dr. Rountree said.
It's going to take a collaborative approach, she said.
"Until we have a serious bridge between public education and the community, we're not going to be able to address their needs," Dr. Rountree said, noting that churches have special programs for students that schools aren't always aware of. "This community has a lot of resources. We just need to find a way to link them all."
Colleen Wilber, a spokeswoman for America's Promise, said the summit is more than just a meeting.
"We want this to be the start of a movement," she said.
The alliance has identified dropouts as a pressing issue. A high school diploma is the No. 1 indicator of future success, and dropping out of school strongly correlates with being incarcerated, Ms. Wilber said.
Reach Greg Gelpi at (706) 828-3851 or greg.gelpi@augustachronicle.com.
LOW GRADUATION RATE
Richmond County applied to hold the summit because of its graduation rate, which is particularly low for black males. It ranks as the sixth-lowest of any large school system in the country for black male graduation rates, according to the Schott Foundation for Public Education.
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The root cause of the drop outs rate is and has been obvious. Addressing a long list of symptoms is the same as ignoring the list. When the incentive to succeed is removed, people stop succeeding. When behavior that leads to the drop out mentality is rewarded, that's where kids gravitate. It's human nature. The subsidy programs need MAJOR overhauling. They need to be difficult to qualify for and only the most narrow of parameters should be able to qualify for extended (over 18 months) benefits. Restore incentive, make long range goals attractive again, stop buying votes. In a generation, the drop out rate will fade to almost zero.
What are the financial incentives are teachers to teach, the curricular incentives for students to learn, and the political incentives for boards of education to insure that teaching and learning occur in their respective public school systems?
What are the financial incentives for teachers to teach, the curricular incentives for students to learn, and the political incentives for boards of education to insure that teaching and learning occur in their respective public school systems?
the primary root cause of the failure is break up of the family and govt subsidy of out of wedlock births and no fathers in the home.
Patricia Thomas, how long have you worked in the education system???
AugustaMomof2, Ms Thomas is right in her assesment to reduce government spending and make the student want to exceed. Giving someone something without them earning it has never been an enducement to suceed. It only leads to a "you owe me attitude". Too many have it now and it will get worse with more programs. What ever happened to personal responsibility and desire. It left with the welfare(slave to the system) mentality.
great another wasteful and useless "program" YOU CAN'T MAKE STUDENTS WHO DON'T WANT TO LEARN, LEARN!!!! why not have a summit on expelling all sorry and trifling student and send them back to their sorry and gtrifling parent(s). or better yet have a summit on teaching the children who want to learn and want an education instead of wasting scarce resources on those who don't
I wonder how many of you actually have a first hand knowledge of the problem and not just so-called knowledge from afar? Subsidy programs aren't the problem but it's just your rallying cry to get your own stirred up. Spend some time in the area before you spout your rhetoric and then maybe you'll actually come up with some viable solutions. Any of you plan on attending the summit to offer your ideas?
my information comes from a very, very good source, my job allows me to come in contact with someone who is educated and taught in the "system" for a very long time, the recently retired mr. lockett. he was interviewed in the local paper a while back and the main reason he retired was due to the fact that as he put it "you can't make children who don't want to learn, learn" and he also stated in the aug chronicle article you can't pour education over their heads and expect it to sink in....the idea of getting rid of all children who don't want to learn out of the system, which btw would make the learning environment conducive to learning could only be done by changing the state constitution which mandates students must be given an education up to the age of 16. also the focus on education must be changed from funding based on attedance to that of achievement and perfomance. have you noticed the difference between charter/magnet schools and public schools. why is it that the local charter schools outperform public schools?? first you have parental involvement, secondly there are far fewer if any student who are there for reasons other than wanting to learn
and further more dmac, have you ever rode by C T WALKER magnet school during recess....high performance is not due to the school being predominantly white either, most of the students are black, and quite few are from single parent households..but is one of the few if the only elementary school in the county the 100% of the students passed the crct test
We need to abolish the compulsory education laws. If a child does not want to be in school, the school sure enough doesn't need him. Also, there should be no "target" or "goal" for high school graduation rate. Whoever toughs it out and meets the criteria for a diploma, good for you. Whoever drops out, may God bless you.
What we need is a combination of several things. We need to stop social promotions at all levels. If a student does not achieve the standards required for promotion, then they should not be promoted. If we enforce this standard we then create another problem of having students that are several years older than their classmates in the same grade. This will create additional problems so we need an alternative education program for the students who do not succeed to prevent having older students in the school preying on the younger students. I think it is time to set an age limit for each grade level once a child enters middle school. If they are more than two years older than their classmates then they should have to attend an alternative school. This alternative school could then teach these students a trade and still work on improving their basic reading and math scores. It is time for everyone to realize that not everyone is going to graduate from a traditional high school program. We need to prepare the students for life and to do that we need to stop giving them everything.
I still think there should be an additional magnet school where students earn their way in by proving they cannot succeed in a regular public school due to failing grades, inappropriate behavior or poor attendance. That would give them an opportunity to excel and hopefully, graduate. Teachers at the school would need additional training in dealing with these at-risk students and should receive incentive pay for being employed at the school. Schools could recommend students for the program and they could automatically qualify. It also should be mandatory that the parents of these students participate in parenting classes and/or classes on how to help their children succeed. Sometimes thinking outside the box offers solutions to difficult problems.
There is no simple answer to the ills of America's education system. A good place to start in finding an answer is in the home. The poorest of children have juggled work, school/good grades and home responsibilities successfully when there has been a strong desire.
AugustaMomof2, how long have you worked in the education system and why is it deteriorating? I live in this country and I see what the problem is. Reward for bad behavior leads to more wanting to commit bad behavior. Reward for high achievement leads to more high achievement. The pattern is easy to figure out.
Just rename the Alternative school Augusta's Better Alternatives Magnet School.