The school board has given the final blessing today to a new academic goal of having 100 percent of students graduating high school by 2014.
The exact wording of the new goal is "WCPSS students will demonstrate high academic growth by 2014; all students will graduate on time prepared to compete globally."
Board members had previously been looking at a goal of a 95 percent graduation rate by 2015. Board members are now saying that anything less than 100 percent would send the wrong message to the public.
UPDATE
Click here for a handout from the meeting explaining the new goal.
The board asked staff to add some measures to the list of leading indicators on page. 2. They want the staff to include ways to measure reduction in the percentage of overage students in middle school and high school and a reduction in the number of students who miss more than 10 days of school a year.
Comments
Is this a Goal or a Dream ? - What are they inhaling?
Tue, 11/18/2008 - 11:09 — Voice_of_Reason_In the Corporate world a goal must be attainable. The only way this goal could be near attainable is to take away freedom from certain parent/family units and/or reduce the standards. And if you focus on the few, the many will suffer. Give me a break, we are talking about humans, not robots.
Potemkin
Tue, 11/18/2008 - 10:55 — kmisegadesIt's another Potemkin Village, just like Goal 2003, Goal 2005, Goal 2008. As long as no one is held accountable for meeting or failing such lofty, arbitrary goals, they remain meaningless.
From Wiki for those who have not heard of this:
Potemkin villages were purportedly fake settlements erected at the direction of Russian minister Grigori Aleksandrovich Potemkin to fool Empress Catherine II during her visit to Crimea in 1787. According to this story, Potemkin, who led the Crimean military campaign, had hollow facades of villages constructed along the desolate banks of the Dnieper River in order to impress the monarch and her travel party with the value of her new conquests, thus enhancing his standing in the empress's eyes.
The ONLY way to achieve this
Tue, 11/18/2008 - 10:27 — NWRaleighMomThe ONLY way to achieve this goal is to prohibit teachers to fail students. And, still, many students will drop out of school, regardless.
Another unattainable goal which is going to cost us lots of money.
How about offering foreign language in school and extending AG services? Last time I checked we were in a financial crisis.
100%?
Tue, 11/18/2008 - 08:03 — g88ky07Once again, LIARS!!!!!!
If only....
Mon, 11/17/2008 - 20:37 — SideburnsThe article mentions 20 measures to achieve 100% graduation. I would like to recommend a few more:
And what did they learn...
Mon, 11/17/2008 - 23:51 — WuptdoAnd what did they learn from that little boondoogle to Atlanta. What is the "secret" of the various schools systems in/around Atlanta? What do high F&R schools systems (Baltimore City & Washington, D.C., come to mind) do to improve their graduation rates?
Nothing more here than a a typical WCPSS public relations circus to justify massive "local" increases in school sending. Beside, I thought soon to be Gov. Perdue was going to save NC schools?
Baa-Baa
questions
Mon, 11/17/2008 - 16:47 — joeciullaMr. Hui,
A few months ago, the BoE discussed this same subject, and if I recall correctly they put a price tag on it. Have they specified what additional funding is required to pursue this objectives? The article mentions a few of the actions to be undertaken, can a complete list be found somewhere else?
Thanks,
Joe
No specifics on cost. I'll
Mon, 11/17/2008 - 17:38 — KeungHui (author)No specifics on cost. I'll post a handout later with the other measures that will be used to indicate progress toward the goal. Staff is working on a policy that would in essence indicate how they would try to implement the board goal. The policy sounds more like a case of redistributing existing resources. But they'll still likely ask for money in next year's budget.
Thanks
Mon, 11/17/2008 - 23:40 — joeciullaMr. Hui,
Thanks for posting the handout. I need to dig deeper, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of meat on the bones.
A lot of the objectives (ie. Increase number of students enrolling in advanced and AP courses) seem more targeted to the students who will graduate regardless.
I see nice notions of increasing student SAT scores, language proficiency, proficiency in science, etc. I don't see any thinking on HOW these are to be accomplished.
The board seems to be grasping at straws and throwing in the kitchen sink on this one. Who knows whether if they actually did all these things that the graduation would approach 100%?
This is a great opportunity for the board to employ some none-traditional thinking. I'd like to see them start with a study and profile of dropouts. Find out why they dropped and put actions (not milestones) in place. Why not start from the base of those that we are know failing and go from there?
And these objectives are solely focused on academics. We know that kids drop out because they get involved in gangs or other crime, because of financial circumstances that are beyond the control of the school system, or because they just don't have the aptitude to earn a HS degree.
Rhetorical question, just my thoughts...
redistributing existing resources?
Mon, 11/17/2008 - 18:02 — AngelaWwill this include their desire for PTA's to distribute amongst schools?
And the $64,000 question is........
Mon, 11/17/2008 - 15:47 — WuptdoAnd the $64,000 question is: How much is it going to cost the taxpayer of Wake County for this unattainable goal?
100% graduation
Mon, 11/17/2008 - 13:12 — mommy59No school can ever have a 100% graduation because no one is perfect.Since WCPSS tells lies they will say they have 100%graduation rate because everyone will walk across the stage,They wil not tell you that out ofa class of 450 25 dropped out in 9th grade,50 flunked at least one of the EOG"S or better yet couldn't complete the senior project.Just that 100%graduated because out the remaining class memebers all will have graduated!
To dream the impossible dream...
Mon, 11/17/2008 - 12:21 — seaknight8Wonder how they'll manipulate statistics to "achieve" that goal.