"Rather than criticize dedicated teachers in urban schools, the researchers said they hoped their findings would “shine a spotlight on a silent epidemic,’ and force more resources to flow to such schools."
--The four schools mentioned are hitting .565. That's a great batting average, but we're not playing baseball here. Whom should we be blaming for this failure? Obviously throwing money at the problem doesn't work. Oh, right - it's an epidemic. It's not the kid's fault, it's not the teachers' fault - maybe we should be looking at the administrators. Let's make RI all one school district with one school committee and get a handle on this before it gets even worse.

Did the survey consider the large number of students in Johnston that transfer to Cranston to attend the Career & Tech School? How about the Pawtucket students transferring to William Davies Vocational School?

This result doesn't seem quite right. The research needs to be researched!

Let's ask the next question, how many illiterates graduate from the 45% graduating at Central High. How many barely speak English and graduate? How many are anchor children or non-citizens.

Doubling their resources couldn't help a failing system: just fund more unionized educational hacks, the real goal of American secondary education.

i AM a teacher in Providence and I would first like to say that I LOVE my students and I would not change my carreer in I had the chance...these resukts seems FAR from accurate...why are transfers considered dropouts? Second of all I could no resist commenting to Arminius the idiot...do you really think there is a large population of illierate graduates? Of course you would focus on the negative....and make this a racial issue. How bout talking about all the FANTASTIC kids that, inspite of some horrible circumstances...they have the drive to make it! I have an immigrant from Liberia who does struggle with English, but let's consider the facts....she watched her moher get shot by rebels and came here to escape wih her father. This PHENOMINAL girl values her education so much, she puts us all to shame! If everyone thought like you, this world would be a horrible place to live! This is or all my high school graduates that have worked so hard to get where they are through numerous obstacles!

Were the researchers in this "study" able to break down numbers enough to determine how many of the students were retained? ...how many transfered out of district? If you have 500 students in grade 9, 50 of whom transfer to a vocational school, 20 of whom are retained, 25 of whom transfer to a private school or simply move out of district, you now have a grade 9 total for the upcoming grade 10 class that has a decrease of 95 students. Are these 95 students now included in a "dropout" total??

Please do not forget the role of parenting when there is little discipline or support or respect for education in the home and in the homes of the associates of the young people. Please do not forget the physical effects of poverty on the ability to focus on tasks that are of the mind when the body is in a state of discomfort or is unwell due to economic deprivation making absent from the lives of the affected young people those things that are taken for granted in a non-afflicted home: sleep, food, stability in housing, proper seasonal clothing, etal. Please do not forget the psychological effects of living in a geographic area where there is a concern for physical safety and the structured school environment might be the only place where a young person can for a time let down his guard and feel safe to a degree but know he will be leaving that place at the end of the day. All of this has a major impact on a child's ability to attend to intangible elements -facts, figures, and exercises of the mind.

Also please remember that in some socioeconomically deprived urban situations, there is more of an immediate need for an income than there is for continued schooling, even if that income is from a minimum wage position and leaving school without a diploma essentailly dooms many who do to a lifetime of low income wage earning.

Schools can only work with what enters the door in the mornings and stays until the end of the day. Teachers are not gifted with mind control abilities. They can demonstrate support and share knowledge and the pathways to acquiring knowledge. There has to be room in the vessel for what a teacher can bring to a young person and there has to be some level of support from the external environment from which the young person comes in order for that person to be able to perform to his best ability. And there has to be willingness. No one can create willingness in another person - it can be encouraged but it can not be created if it is resisted. As for compliance, that can be attained if there is sufficient discipline structure in place. And that brings us back to the home. There will always be those who succeed and those who fail outside of the statistical norm of any demographic regardless of the input from teachers. As for the statistical norm of a given demographic it will either complement or work against the efforts of teachers who only see kids for part of their waking hours for days when they attend school. In both cases there are challenges. Teachers and schools in urban areas are daily fighting against odds that are designed to overwhelm their efforts.

These are the schools whose funding is threatened through the No Child Left Behind law. These are the schools that need funding desperately to be able to reach as many young people living with these factors stacked against them.

The goal of the study - to raise awareness of the need for funding for these schools- is admirable. It is in conflict with the funding penalites for schools which can not meet the norm determined standards of the NCLB testing. And the schools which struggle the most with that are the urban schools which have many poverty issues that factor in elements that do not support meeting testing norms because the environmental factors support something altogether different. If this study causes only more finger pointing at teachers among the general populace then it will have caused yet further damage by demoralizing the people who have not only dedicated their lives and resources to the cause of the education of the population, and not for great personal financial gain or societal respect, but who have also chosen to bring their efforts and work into the places where the challenges are greatest and the stress factors such that many would find them unbearable.

If it were your job to produce competent to competitive runners and it was expected that you do so with every child sent to you, and many come being so physically beaten that they can barely stand and they leave every single day to get beaten some more before returning, and the work with those has to focus on helping them to be able to simply stand or walk, to have done so given the same amount of institutional time and resources to use for all who come is success. To cut funding for the places where that represents a goodly proportion of the work is counterproductive. To denigrate the workers is just as harmful. This seems to often be the case. Look at the environmental conditions for many students in the schools named. The teachers in those schools have are in battle everyday not only with the external elements of the environment but with internally maintaining their own sense of well being and energy.

This is social. There are too many factors for single pointed finger to address and test score and drop out statistics are nothing more than an indication of a greater social problem.

Pickle is a teacher who cannot write one sentence without an error. Maybe this is part of the problem.

Unfortunately, online blogs often get posted without proofreading either consciously or by the accident of hitting the submit button or the return key without intent because of moving quickly. Pickle's entry errors are 99% keyboard typos -letter dropped, letter next to the one intended. I'm sure Pickle's day was pretty full and brain-draining and Pickle's response very emotional -indicating dropped words in quickly typed emotional thought in an informal forum with pretty much immediate presentation unlike sending a hardcopy Letter to the Editor. That Pickle is reading the news indicates that Pickle likley shares current events with students. That Pickle takes time to read and respond in minutes between the school day, grading papers, prepping for lessons, setting up at home for the next day, and possibly making dinner and managing dinner and activities for a family is positive. Anyone who has never hit the submit button in a quick moment of responding to something and then shrunken inside rereading a post that is rife with errors can cast the first stone. A blog post is not the definitive marker of a person's capability - more of the amount of time a person has to perform the activity. And we all know computer screen proofreading of documents is considerably weaker than proofing a hardcopy, and first draft errors often make it through the cut in that instance. I would not be so hard on the blog entry which was clearly a quickly done piece. In a perfect world, everything that everyone does would be proper in all aspects and in all moments. Granted, it would have served Pickle's purpose, considering Pickle's placement, to have taken the time to review it -- but if it was one of those "I can't believe I hit the Post and not Preview button" moments which we all have had at one time or another as we interact online in the comfort of our homes and not in the places where we are expected to be "on" then it is just an unfortunate event. If it was otherwise then it's an issue of concern. All the people looking over Pickle's shoulder at that 5:58pm traditionally dinnertime moment can address that; anyone else could think about the forum and the possibilities and leave even just a little room.

WHAT A SURPRISE...WAKE UP.....THIS HAS BEEN BREWING FOR OVER 30 YEARS. THE ANSWER PAY TEACHERS HIGHER SALARIES. SMALLER CLASSES. YOU HAVE HEARD EXCUSES FOR YEARS. LATEST REQUEST BY TEACHERS GIVE US THE CHILDREN SOONER. THEY PROMISE, MORE TEACHERS. MANY STILL THINK A TEACHER HAS LARGE CLASSES AND IS ALONE. WRONG,
THEY HAVE CLASS ROOM AIDS AND MANY HAVE CLASSES WITH 11 STUDENTS. (WWW.KIDSCOUNT.ORG) MY SUGGESTION. PROVIDE EVERY STUDENT WITH A HOME COMPUTOR AND HOME SCHOOL. YOU CAN EARN A COLLEGE DEGREE ON LINE. YOU CAN READ THE PRO TEACHERS COMMENTS AND EXCUSES OR YOU CAN DO SOMETHING FOR CHANGE.

While using transfers as part of the equation will skew the numbers, these 5 districts need to investigate whether the reason for the transfers (poor quality of education, lack of programs, etc).

I cannot resist commenting to pickle, the teacher, that i have grave concerns regarding her inability to spell, type or construct a grammatically correct sentence. I have to wonder if she is teaching at one of these school. I also have to agree that there are MANY graduates out there who are barely literate and who cannot make change without a register that tells them how much to give back.

I was taught something many years ago BY A TEACHER that has always stuck with me when writing something the public will see - don’t release it until you have proofed it first. Her point was that if it reads like pickle’s response, you end up not being taken very seriously. Pickle, I really hope you are not an English teacher (or any teacher at all) since your writing is an embarrassment. Imagine someone nationally getting a hold of this blog to show the rest of the country just how uneducated our own teachers are. Admittedly, this might be funny if it wasn’t about our own teachers and kids.
Dear Yankee Lady, you wrote an awful lot of words defending ignorance. Now how about some directed at our kids to somehow get them to stay in school despite teachers who can not write decent English.