Thread: Volunteers fan out to persuade ex-students to give school an

Dropouts get a 2nd chance
Volunteers fan out to persuade ex-students to give school another try
By JAMES PINKERTON
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Sept. 6, 2008, 10:42PM
8Comments 1Recommend

JAMES NIELSEN CHRONICLE
Alain Sanchez re-enrolls at Langham Creek High School during Saturday's "Reach Out to Dropouts" project.

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School Zone: Get the latest education news in Houston Since dropping out of high school, Alain Sanchez has experienced the challenges of the work-a-day world.

The Mexican immigrant climbed his way up to assistant manager of a fried chicken franchise, a job he took after leaving Cypress Springs High School two years ago. Even when he was enrolled, Sanchez admits he skipped most of his classes.

"This time, I'm going to go to class because I want to get my diploma and go to college," said Sanchez, 20, who hopes for a career in computer science.

Sanchez was one of 15 dropouts who re-enrolled Saturday during a morning blitz by 490 Cypress-Fairbanks ISD volunteers, who fanned out to search for 734 students who failed to return to class last month.

They were able to confirm that another 164 students had enrolled in other districts, left the state, were being home-schooled or had re-registered at the suburban district.

Superintendent David Anthony said Cypress-Fairbanks, the state's third-largest school system with 100,500 students, has an 89 percent graduation rate, the highest of the 50 largest districts across the nation.

So why all the effort?

"It's our moral obligation to educate our children," Anthony said. "If we know there are students who dropped out and don't do anything to get them back, shame on us."

Anthony wore a T-shirt with "Learn More, Earn More" printed across the front. It's part of the district's effort to inform dropouts they'll earn roughly $12,000 less a year than graduates.

"It's in their best interest for the future," Anthony said. "And for the community, it means a lower crime rate and a higher quality of life due to an educated community."


Dropout prevention

As state education officials take a harder line on dropout rates, districts across Texas have begun to develop strategies to reduce the huge percentages of students who quit school.

Next year, the Texas Education Agency is planning to implement a tougher standard to define dropouts as it figures state accountability ratings for school districts.

Houston Independent School District was the first district to begin the annual outreach effort in 2004. On Saturday, 1,400 HISD volunteers convinced 98 dropouts to return.

In all, 16 school districts around Texas, including Dallas, San Antonio and El Paso, mounted campaigns to find missing students Saturday.

Houston Mayor Bill White, who accompanied HISD officials, noted that more than 30 percent of students — or 135,000 young adults — drop out of Texas public schools each year.

"We need these kids to get their high school diplomas and more," White said. "We've brought back, in HISD alone, some 5,500 kids in the last four years and this program is so successful that it's been duplicated throughout the state."

"It was just great. It's very rewarding to go out and talk to these young people who really don't know what direction they want to go in," said Susan Castro, spokeswoman for Alief ISD, which re-enrolled 30 students after visiting 628 homes.


Breaking the cycle

Linda McSpadden McNeil, a professor of education at Rice University, applauded the districts' efforts, but said breaking the dropout cycle will involve more fundamental changes.

McNeil co-authored an extensive study this year that concluded Texas' high-stakes accountability tests actually contribute directly to low graduation rates.

Communities should focus on eliminating the glaring disparities between school districts and examining the current system of state-mandated testing that is shoving unsuccessful students out the door, she said.

"This accounting system rewards schools for higher test scores even if the test scores come at the cost of poor kids, immigrant kids, children of color, who do not test well."

And since a principal's job, and often bonus pay, is tied to test results, they sometimes opt to hold students back to keep them from taking the tests, McNeil said.

"Until we, as a community, show a collective effort to completely revise what we reward, at the grown-up level, we'll continue to lose kids," she said.


Failure demoralizes

Local educators agreed that repeated failures on standardized tests has a demoralizing effect on students, especially immigrants who are learning English.

"How many times can you fail before you quit coming?" asked Tim Silver, assistant principal at Langham Creek High School. "Some of these kids have come here from other countries, and they haven't taken U.S. history in the eighth grade — when do they have time to make that up since a lot of them are working to help their families?"

james.pinkerton@chron.com
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hea ... 87689.html
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The Mexican immigrant climbed his way up to assistant manager of a fried chicken franchise, a job he took after leaving Cypress Springs High School two years ago. Even when he was enrolled, Sanchez admits he skipped most of his classes.

"This time, I'm going to go to class because I want to get my diploma and go to college," said Sanchez, 20, who hopes for a career in computer science.

So we're supposed to waste US taxpayer money on people like this?? He can get his GED! Why in hell would we put a 20 year old man in high school?!?!?! How irresponsible can one be?!?!

"How many times can you fail before you quit coming?" asked Tim Silver, assistant principal at Langham Creek High School. "Some of these kids have come here from other countries, and they haven't taken U.S. history in the eighth grade — when do they have time to make that up since a lot of them are working to help their families?"

Waah waah waah! If they are illegal, they MUST be deported! If they are legal, they need to be taking MORE english instruction. Why are we dumbing OUR kids down for them?!?! If these immigrant kids have to work to support their families, maybe mom and dad should sew their legs shut and STOP HAVING MORE KIDS!!!

When we emigrated, my family made me SIT down with english speaking relatives every day after school and learn. The Catholic school I went to had NOTHING like ESL, they just sat me in a corner and I was expected to learn by osmosis. Took me 3 years to learn english this way, so there is NO excuse not to learn english with all the offerings they have these days!!