Education in Texas was the recipient of boxcar loads of attention a few years ago. When it was in the news, it played to the tune of a mariachi band. George W. Bush rode into the White House, or at least into the Supreme Court, partly because he claimed mastery of one of the major domestic dilemmas in the country — the failure of our schools to teach and graduate more literate people. Bush then appointed the man he claimed had shepherded the Texas education miracle, Rod Paige, U.S. secretary of education.
Now, cue the violins. The truth about the alleged miracle has emerged. The 'miracle' seems to have consisted of frauds on several levels.
The Houston Chronicle reports the Texas has the highest proportion of dropouts in the country, and, it is not improving.
For the second straight year, Texas has the lowest percentage of high school graduates in the nation, according to a U.S. Census Bureau study released Tuesday.
Seventy-seven percent of Texans age 25 and older had a high school degree in 2003, the same percentage as a decade earlier, when Texas ranked 39th in the country. So while other states have seen their graduation rates improve — a record 85 percent of Americans have high school degrees — Texas is treading water.
Defenders of the situation have tried to blame low graduation rates on the state having a large population of Hispanic immigrants. But, knowledgeable sources disagree, pointing out that 85 percent of Hispanic students are American born. Additionally, they say that the high rate of Hispanic dropouts, about 40 percent in cities such as Houston, shows the educational system is failing 34 percent of the state's population. There isn't a moderate achievement, not to mention a miracle, with such a level of failure occurring, they say.
Article comments
1 - Mac Diva
I don't want to give the impression that students are 'disappearing' only in Texas. Not at all. The first in-depth article I read about a 'leaver'' code system was in the New York Times months ago. It described how inner-city children were being driven out of the system to help improve test scores and save money in NYC, by the thousands. The youths are usually too naive to realize that the teachers and counselors 'helping' them aren't.
The piece is still available through the NYT's paid archives. Or you might be able to get it via Magazines Online. Not familiar with MA? You can use it to get many articles past their shelf life from various publications. If you go to the database using your card number from a public library, there are no fees.
2 - Tom
Yes it is an alarming issue across the nation. There are many risk factors which can lead to school dropout including transitions and mobility, lack of early commitment to school, economic depravation, family problems, as well as many interpersonal issues.
I don't think any government can do it through costly mandated programs. Instead monies must be targeted to local coalitions looking at analyzing local data and developing a combination of local innovative programs as well as research based programs meant at reducing the risk factors, and therefore reducing the problem behavior.
This is also referred to the Seattle Social Development Strategy