Every Child a Graduate

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(No Transcript)
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Every Child a Graduate
Presented by Susan Frost, Executive
Director Scott Joftus, Policy Director
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The Alliance for Excellent Education
Huge numbers of students are failing to graduate
from high school on time. The problem is
especially severe in some urban districts.
Source Jay Greene, High School Graduation Rates
in the United States, November 2001
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The Alliance for Excellent Education
Of those who fail to graduate with their peers,
what is the ultimate result?

• About a quarter ultimately graduate from high
  school

• About a quarter receive a GED

• Almost half neither complete high school nor
  receive a GED

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The Alliance for Excellent Education
If nothing changes, the drop out rate is likely
to increase in coming years.

• By 2002, 10 states were withholding diplomas
  based on exit exams
• By 2008, 24 states will do so
• High-stakes exams typically affect minority
  students disproportionately

Source State High School Exit Exams A Baseline
Report. Center on Education Policy, August 2002
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The Alliance for Excellent Education
A bad education is a million-dollar mistake.
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The Alliance for Excellent Education
What are the causes of the failure?

• Low literacy levels among adolescents

• Under-prepared teachers for poor and minority
  students

• Inadequate planning and support for students

• Impersonal learning environments that fail to
  emphasize high standards

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The Alliance for Excellent Education
Low literacy levels among adolescents

• 26 percent of eighth graders and 23 percent of
  twelfth graders read below basic levels.

• Extrapolating, 6 million students in grades 6
  through 12 are reading below basic levels.

• These students represent two-thirds of all drop
  outs.

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The Alliance for Excellent Education
Poor quality of teachers for poor and minority
students
Source Craig Jerald and Richard Ingersoll. All
Talk, No Action Putting an End to Out-of-Field
Teaching. The Education Trust, August 2002
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The Alliance for Excellent Education
Inadequate planning and support for students

• 40 percent of high school youth and nearly 50
  percent of middle school youth report feeling
  disengaged from school
• Rates higher for adolescents attending urban
  schools
• Most of these students do not have a meaningful
  relationship with an adult and do not receive
  high-quality support services

Source Peter Scales. Boxed in and Bored How
Middle Schools Continue to Fail Young Adolescents
and What Good Middle Schools Do Right, Search
Institute, 1996
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The Alliance for Excellent Education
Impersonal learning environments that fail to
emphasize high standards

• Over the last 50 years, school enrollments have
  increased five-fold on average and even more in
  low-income neighborhoods.

• Approximately 70 percent of American high school
  students attend schools with enrollments of 1,000
  or more students, and nearly 50 percent of high
  school students attend schools in which the
  student population is over 1,500.

Source U.S. Department of Education,
www.ed.gov/offices/OESE/SLCP/overview.html
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The Alliance for Excellent Education
In Texas, 53 high schools with large
concentrations of poor students are among the
highest achieving (top 25 percent) in the state.

Of these 53 schools, 48 have fewer than 600
students.
Source Alliance analysis of data from The
Education Trust Dispelling the Myth Online.
http//www.edtrust.org/main/main/DTM.aspreport
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The Alliance for Excellent Education
THE ALLIANCE CALLS FOR
A Framework for an Excellent Education for All
Middle and High School Students
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The Alliance for Excellent Education
Framework for an Excellent Education

• Adolescent Literacy Initiative
• Teacher and Principal Quality Initiative
• College Preparation Initiative
• Small Learning Communities Initiative

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The Alliance for Excellent Education
ADOLESCENT LITERACY INITIATIVE

• Every high-needs middle and high school will
  have a literacy specialist who trains teachers
  across every subject area to improve literacy
  skills of students. Teachers learn to identify
  reading problems and ensure that students receive
  extra help.

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The Alliance for Excellent Education
TEACHER AND PRINCIPAL QUALITY INITIATIVE

• Provide incentives to educators to work in
  high-needs schools, mentoring for new teachers,
  and ongoing professional development for all
  teachers and principals.

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The Alliance for Excellent Education
COLLEGE PREPARATION INITIATIVE

• Students must have a clear plan that assesses
  their needs and identifies coursework, additional
  learning opportunities, and necessary health and
  social services.

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The Alliance for Excellent Education
SMALL LEARNING COMMUNITIES INITIATIVE

• Small schools personalize and contextualize
  students educational experience and facilitate
  the implementation of other effective strategies.

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The Alliance for Excellent Education
An investment in the Framework for an Excellent
Education will pay for itself.
Reducing the numbers of adults in the lowest
literacy levels by two-thirds would

• Increase the U.S. gross domestic product by 463
  billion

• Add an additional 162 billion to federal, state,
  and local tax receipts

Source Anthony Carnavale and Donna Desrochers.
The Missing Middle Aligning Education and the
Knowledge Economy, Educational Testing Service,
U.S. Department of Education, 2002
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The Alliance for Excellent Education
The Framework for an Excellent Education seeks to
harness Americans belief that every student
deserves access to a high-quality education and
should graduate from high school prepared for
college and/or a meaningful career.