Sup Teach?

When I first read this article, I knew an eventual blog post was a must. I know I will complain this school year about long nights grading, lesson planning, extremely short lunches; I’ll complain about the need to fully invest myself in and out of work when I’d rather just fully be me after walking out my classroom door. I’ll complain about students who give me hell even though I work so hard for them. I love the teaching profession, but it requires one to extend him or herself further than many other jobs.

Articles like this ground me. Articles like this remind me precisely the reason why the work that we do is so important, so crucial. They remind me that this line of work has the potential to cause a ripple effect not only in the lives of students, but in communities, in society.

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It was originally believed that 13% of students in California who begin high school do not graduate. That’s more than 1 in 10. And that’s not only in urban areas, that’s everywhere. After devising a system to track dropouts, more accurate stats have been determined: 24% of students who begin high school do not graduate. Let me repeat for emphasis’ sake: In California, 24% of students who begin high school do not graduate.

The article breaks down the stats:

The new report shows that 42 percent of black students and 30 percent of Latinos quit high school last year- far more than the state average, and far more than state officials had thought.

They had estimated that 10,000 black students quit – but the real number was nearly twice as high: 19,440.

For Latinos, the estimate was that 37,716 had quit. The real number was a shocking 69,035.

Here are the dropout rates for other ethnic groups:

– Native Americans: 31% (1,440 students).

– Latinos: 30% (69,035 students).

– Pacific Islanders were next: 28 % (964 students).

– Whites: 15 % (26,165 students).

– Filipinos: 12 percent (1,687 students).

– Asian Americans: 10 % (4,462 students).

– Others: 31 % (4,099 students.)

These stats are staggering. 30%? 42%!? One might look at that “smaller” 12% and think to themselves “well that ain’t that bad,” but rethink that for a second. Yes it is! It’s ridiculous to think THAT MANY people fail to complete their high school education. Education is a right. The system is doing a disservice to too many. Regardless of the circumstance or the situation, everyone should be able to earn a high school diploma…

I’d like to provide ‘a high school teacher’s perspective’ on this issue. What happens to these students? How do they act in the classroom? What are their attitudes? Where do they go once they leave? What’s going on in Oakland? But I think I’ll save that for my next post. Stay tuned.