In the postsecondary item just posted, CPE's goal of giving ninth graders a better chance at college by age 19 uses data cited as coming from Measuring Up, but the Measuring Up Technical Guide cites the Mortenson Seminar.
Mortenson's "chance for college" calculation uses a straight count of ninth graders, meaning the same bulging number I discussed here, here, and here. As a result, if one student spends two years in grade nine, that student is counted as missing from college in two different entering years. Saying the number is the chance at college "by age 19" is meant to address the double count, but it doesn't really clean up the problem.
The KBE needs to take on addressing the reason for the 9th grade bulge. The data for those kids needs to be dissagregated as far down as you can go for every district and school. Then we need people who will go into those schools and districts and ask the tough questions of the students, parents, teachers and administrators so we can learn the root issues for this problem and start to come up with solutions to address them. If KBE doesn't have the bodies to do this, then they need to enter into contractual partnerships with civic and community groups; for example Prichard Committee members, CIPL Fellows,or the Urban League; to train them to do this work.
ReplyDeleteI recently had the opportunity to conduct a little roundtable with five graduating seniors who are African American males who receive free/reduced price lunch. The students can tell us alot if we will only listen to them. The issues these students raised were the racist attitudes and low expectations they have dealt with in high school.