Think of nine people you went to elementary school with. OK, now remember all the good times you had and the promises for a great future which were hopefully laid out for you throughout your school career. OK, and now think about those other nine people, and think about the fact that, on average in this country, only four of them would have graduated from high school with you. Ridiculous? Hardly.
On April 1, the America's Promise Alliance, a research alliance founded by former Secretary of State Colin Powell, issued a report detailing the current graduation and dropout rates among America's high schools.
The study determined that only about half of American students who attend high school end up receiving diplomas. Because this is an average, it means that far less than 50 percent of students in some of the worst cities and school districts are graduating. Baltimore City public schools, however, ran a close fourth, with a meager graduation rate of 34.6 percent.
These numbers are shocking to me. At an elite academic institution such as Hopkins, the vast majority of students probably find these numbers to be not just alarming, but downright unforgivable.
I'll admit that coming from the Baltimore County public school system (where the graduation rate is 81.5 percent), I find it simply unfathomable that a school district in such close proximity to mine can provide such a stark contrast.
This only further serves to reinforce the idea that there is an ever-widening financial and learning gap. Something needs to be done about this. But how do we even begin to remedy this problem?
Well, programs such as Teach for America are definitely a good first step in the positive direction. By placing teachers in low-income, underachieving schools, Teach for America aims to promote interest in the teaching population because, frankly, most teachers do not want to teach in schools that are already underperforming.
This idea is also addressed in a recent article by the Baltimore Sun, which discusses the fact that teachers at 11 public schools in Baltimore City may have to reapply for their jobs at the end of the year due to provisions mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).
Because their schools are underperforming, NCLB attributes it to a lack of interest, skill or motivation on the parts of the teachers, and thus forces them to have to compete for their jobs if they wish to continue teaching at the same school.
While this may seem like a good idea, it can lead to even more problems, as teachers may be upset by the idea of having to reapply for jobs that they already hold. For the first year or so, this can lead to unrest among the faculty.
A second answer to the question of what can be done is to provide more funding for education. The federal government needs to stop decreasing funding for education in order to increase funding for national defense.
First and foremost, these funds should be used to increase teachers' salaries, because, let's face it, teachers have a very difficult job and are not well-compensated for it. This leads to a decrease in interest in teaching, which must be reversed if our students are to succeed.
The possibility for salary increases must be based not only on teacher performance (based on intermittent reviews) but also upon the performance of students (based on performance on standardized tests).
This funding also needs to go towards things such as general maintenance of schools, textbooks and other classroom supplies and the availability of technology such as computers and other classroom audio-visual materials to create safe environments that are conducive to learning.
We also must seek to provide more opportunities for students to receive tutoring and other help with their schoolwork.
Many students have difficulty grasping concepts during class time, when the teachers must teach in overcrowded situations - another contributing factor to the high dropout rate - and are not available to meet the individual needs of each student.
Finally, though it may seem a bit of a stretch, we must encourage participation in extracurricular activities as well as provide various opportunities and choices for such participation. Extracurricular activities have been proven to teach students greater time management skills. They also serve as stress-relievers and keep kids out of trouble after school.
By participating in extracurriculars, students have a reason to go to school; we have thus achieved the first step in increasing graduation rates by making sure students attend school in the first place.
We must all be aware of the education system in this country. As people who have clearly benefited from it and are in a position to do something about it, we must seek to help those who are less fortunate than us to have the same opportunities in life.
