Comments on Proposed graduation requirements lack transparency - Greater Greater Washington

Comment by WoodsonWarrior

Sun, 07 Oct 2012 19:10:07 EDT

McKinley is legit but it is an application only high school. This is supposedly new requirements for high schools but what are the plans for our elementary and middle schools? See, if you're prepared well at the elem/mid school level, the high school choices are abundant. Now if you're not, then those so-called requirements become restraints which become remedial courses in college. The reason colleges are not involved in the planning portion of the DCPS plan is because our students have become the "cash cow" of the industry. Think about it .

Comment by John Muller

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 11:52:12 EDT

@JustMe

Thank you. Always better to go directly to the source. I agree with the quote you cite and what President Obama is saying. He is dead on.

What I was getting at is the current emphasis within the various education admins that everyone must go right from high school to college, a traditional college, is why you see charter schools and DCPS making claims that 100% of the graduating class is going to college. Maybe it is just me but when I think of college I don't think of Job Corps or a cosmetology school whose "admissions criteria" is that you can come up with the money.

I didn't mean to vilify President Obama rather it is the make believe that exists in some of these claims DCPS and other school systems peddle about kids being "college ready." They are not.

There was a story the other day about how something like 10,000 people apply to UDC but a significant amount of applicants don't actually complete it. So now they want to hire coaches to help folks with the application process -- furthering the 21st century transformation of teachers from educators to social workers / case managers. This is what I mean. UDC will say they received 10K applications and out of that they accepted 2,500 or whatever the number is. That acceptance number is mots likely the folks who turned in the application. I want to know the person who didn't get accepted to UDC... oh, wait, that is what the Community College of DC is for.

Another thing that has started to leak out in the press is how many DCPC grads go off to college and after a semester or two or three come back to the city with few credits and big debt.

This is not just a DC issue. A study the other day showed about 60% of folks graduate college within 6 years. Granted someone taking night classes and in the military could skew this number but it is without a doubt that kids go off to college and aren't ready.

All I am saying is 2 plus 2 has always equaled four and "B" has always come after "A" in the alphabet. So the problems of education are coming from elsewhere...

Comment by JustMe

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 11:00:09 EDT

President Obama wants everyone to go to "college."

President Obama said:

So tonight I ask every American to commit to at least one year or more of higher education or career training. This can be a community college or a four-year school, vocational training or an apprenticeship. But whatever the training may be, every American will need to get more than a high school diploma.

Comment by John Muller

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 10:49:27 EDT

*McKinley Tech*

Comment by John Muller

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 10:48:48 EDT

+ McKinley High School as legitimate DC Public high school

Comment by John Muller

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 10:46:55 EDT

Thanks for following this.

The high school gradation rate is an exercise in "fuzzy math" from state to state and municipality to municipality.

Does the rate look at 12th graders who graduated later that year or does it look at 9th graders who then graduate in 4 (and sometimes 5) years? What about students that transfer into that particular school system and/or those who transfer out?

As a whole public school education in this country is a disaster and DC is a "city at risk." This is nothing new. While students from Wilson and Banneker and School Without Walls and a scattering from other schools actually matriculate to college when places like Anacostia High School claim that there is a "100%" college acceptance rate they are including community colleges, cosmetology schools, and places like University of Phoenix. I don't need to explain how this demonstrates the art of confusion and obfuscation.

Ask the instructors at PR Harris or Bertie Backus how well DCPC is preparing students to simply write a sentence.

I had a 17-year old 9th grader reading at a 3rd grade level. He graduated.

President Obama wants everyone to go to "college." My cousin did not go to college. He got a trade -- airplane mechanic -- and is making $80,000 in his late 20s.

My speculation is that all this is just more of the same... dumbing everything down so these "metrics" are met so Admin folks keep collecting their paychecks.

Meanwhile, Jay Matthews week after week calls for a full investigation into DCPS system-wide cheating. Georgia got to the bottom if it. We barely scratch the surface of what is going on.

Keep up the education coverage.

Comment by Jasper

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 10:36:51 EDT

our increasingly complex world makes social studies more important, not less important

Sure. It was a history major that started Facebook. The most famous American historian I can come up with is Dr Gingrich.

I note that the words science, engineering and STEM are once again absent. Shameful.