SMCPS School Dropout Rates

[alex]

Check out this report from the Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/09/AR2007050902411.html?nav=hcmodule

St. Mary's County is almost as bad as DC!!! What the heck are they doing with the $$$ they get???

 

[sparkyaclown]

There is more incentive to let them go with "No Child Left Behind". The school doesn't get penalized for drop-outs. However they do get penalized if that same child who is most likely going to fail anyhow stays.

 

[kwillia]

Check out this report from the Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/09/AR2007050902411.html?nav=hcmodule

St. Mary's County is almost as bad as DC!!! What the heck are they doing with the $$$ they get???

I'd place blame on crappy parents before I'd place the blame on the schools.

 

[sparkyaclown]

I'd place blame on crappy parents before I'd place the blame on the schools.

Totally agree, hence the reason the school is more than happy to let them walk.

 

[Coventry17]

It was so much easier for parents when I was young. They could just clout you upside the head until you did what they said. Now, you raise your voice to a kid and they're on the phone reporting you for child abuse. Allowing these knuckleheads to take the easy way out creates an entire generation of unemployable slackers who will either turn to crime or social services provided for by those of us who've worked our behinds off to get ahead. Sad.

 

[MMDad]

It was so much easier for parents when I was young. They could just clout you upside the head until you did what they said. Now, you raise your voice to a kid and they're on the phone reporting you for child abuse. Allowing these knuckleheads to take the easy way out creates an entire generation of unemployable slackers who will either turn to crime or social services provided for by those of us who've worked our behinds off to get ahead. Sad.

That is a cop out used by parents who are too lazy to raise their children. There is nothing that stops parents who want to parent from being parents.

Lazy parents allow their children to sit in front of the TV until they are five, expect the schools to turn them into humans, get mad at the schools when their children get into trouble, then blame the system for not allowing them to parent.

Good parents don't have to worry about social services getting involved because they teach their children good discipline from birth, and they don't beat or abuse their children because there is no reason to.

 

[thegreatsnozz]

Students that drop out of school should be required to have compulsory military training within a national guard unit until they are eighteen.

 

[Bustem' Down]

There is more incentive to let them go with "No Child Left Behind". The school doesn't get penalized for drop-outs. However they do get penalized if that same child who is most likely going to fail anyhow stays.

"No Child Left Behind" was feel good legislation. It has a pretty name and ideas that everyone says yes to, but doesn't actually do anything.

 

[BernieP]

I'd place blame on crappy parents before I'd place the blame on the schools.

it's a combination. Each party, the teachers, the parents and the school administration has a part, none can do it on their own. As a parent you put your kid in school for almost 7 hours and hope they echo your values. As a parent you have to remind you child of their responsibility to do their homework and reinforce the teacher's authority in the classroom. Likewise the schools can't preach to the kids about "their rights" and subvert parental authority (which happens more then you believe).

 

[terbear1225]

what do you mean by "subvert parental authority"

 

[alex]

Students that drop out of school should be required to have compulsory military training within a national guard unit until they are eighteen.

 

[Jason CCNPP YPs]

it's a combination. Each party, the teachers, the parents and the school administration has a part, none can do it on their own. As a parent you put your kid in school for almost 7 hours and hope they echo your values. As a parent you have to remind you child of their responsibility to do their homework and reinforce the teacher's authority in the classroom. Likewise the schools can't preach to the kids about "their rights" and subvert parental authority (which happens more then you believe).

After a 2 week stint subbing as a PE teacher (6-8) between getting out of the Navy and coming to Calvert I perceived the following of my experience:

1. Students know the teacher is powerless to discipline
2. Teachers are apathetic to students not under their charge
3. Many students have children as parents
4. Physical education is waning (maybe due to funding being divertered to test preparation)

 

[awpitt]

Students that drop out of school should be required to have compulsory military training within a national guard unit until they are eighteen.

Not sure if they still do it or not but at one time, WVa would take driver’s licenses away from drop-outs until age eighteen.

 

[Barnacle]

There is more incentive to let them go with "No Child Left Behind". The school doesn't get penalized for drop-outs. However they do get penalized if that same child who is most likely going to fail anyhow stays.

That is not true. School systems are penalized for dropouts.

(Just an aside: Penalized is a funny word.... )

 

[Coventry17]

That is a cop out used by parents who are too lazy to raise their children. There is nothing that stops parents who want to parent from being parents.

Lazy parents allow their children to sit in front of the TV until they are five, expect the schools to turn them into humans, get mad at the schools when their children get into trouble, then blame the system for not allowing them to parent.

Good parents don't have to worry about social services getting involved because they teach their children good discipline from birth, and they don't beat or abuse their children because there is no reason to.

So, by that argument, every kid that turns out bad is a result of bad parenting. I don't buy it. Some people are just born knuckleheads.

 

[Coventry17]

After a 2 week stint subbing as a PE teacher (6-8) between getting out of the Navy and coming to Calvert I perceived the following of my experience:

1. Students know the teacher is powerless to discipline
2. Teachers are apathetic to students not under their charge
3. Many students have children as parents
4. Physical education is waning (maybe due to funding being divertered to test preparation)

 

[Jason CCNPP YPs]

I could of easily became a full time teacher through the troops to teachers program, but I am glad I learned the dirty side as a substitute.

I came in to having 6 periods with upwards of 40-50 students in some classes (legal?).

There was no curriculum, barely a roll, no grades, and no structure. Some students had no sneakers, etc. We were about 4 weeks from the end of the grading period.

I think I spent nearly 500 USD buying pairs of shoes Sizes 5-10, playground equipment, balls, nets, etc. I think I netted around 400 USD in pay. I developed a curriculum to assess physical fitness in accordance the schools own defunct policies and contacted all the parents with info on who I was, what I was doing, etc. Lunch duty was fun, too. I must of spent a hundred in McDonalds coupons so I could do knowledge quizzes with students at lunch to keep them engaged and orderly.

My lunch room was in order.

I lasted 3 weeks and the req went to the next substitute. I hope the changes I made lasted.

I did learn that yelling at a smart ass little student gets you no where.

I also learned that little snobby white girls get away with murder and were not expecting me leading their babysitter club butts to detention. The black kids trusted me and respected me, because they knew I didn't take crap from anyone and distributed discipline without predjudice.

In the end, I was just and fair and it opened my eyes to the jungle.

 

[MMDad]

So, by that argument, every kid that turns out bad is a result of bad parenting. I don't buy it. Some people are just born knuckleheads.

Another cop out. In your world of excuses either the government doesn't let you parent, or your kids were born knuckleheads. Either way, it's not your fault. I hope you don't have kids with that attitude.

 

[Jason CCNPP YPs]

I like my women like I like my coffee: Hot and Free.

 

[nightowl]

I also hate that they have changed the age a child enrolls in school (has to be 5 by Sept. 1 to start kindergarten) so now all children are going to be going into their senior year already 18 (ok MMDAD 17 *grin*) so it will be out of the parents hands. I think it will only make the drop out rate increase.