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NAVIGATION
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Grammar, Granholm and Graduation Rates (but not in that order)By Nick, Section News
I bet all-day kindergarten and a new 18 year old age mandate for high school drop outs would clear this right up. Clearly the reason the public education system continues to fail Michigan children, especially in places like Detroit, is because there just plain isn't enough of it. Or maybe there are other issues at play here. Maybe Jennifer Granholm's populist tripe about drop-out ages and pre-K standards are nothing but attempts at grand distraction to keep the gullible masses confused and blind to the reality facing school kids across the State. And maybe, just maybe, when you mix these public school (read: State controlled) empowerment programs with her rejection of a $200 million GIFT from philanthropist Bob Thompson that would have threatened her education monopoly in the State's most troubled school district one might just get the sense that Jennifer Granholm's interest in education extends as far as her ability to protect her buddies in the MEA but doesn't reach as far as the kids they're hired to help.
Then again, maybe she was right to reject all that free cash. It's not like Thompson could have possibly done any better than the Detroit Public Schools are doing now, right? Yeah, wrong. The Detroit News reports this morning on a new study issued via Michigan State University that indicates the problem with Michigan's public schools in general and DPS in particular are every bit as grave as we've all feared.
Sharif Shakrani, director of the Education Policy Center at MSU and the author of the study, said researchers looked at the total number of freshmen in Detroit Public Schools in fall 2002 and then in each subsequent year through June 2006.
They took into account the number who moved to charter schools or to other districts in the state, where records were available. And the results, even after you weed out the transfers? A 32% graduation rate in the city of Detroit. Thirty-two percent of incoming freshmen receive their diploma after four years. That's 32 out of 100. Less than one third. It'd be shocking if it wasn't the sort of thing we've grown sadly accustomed to reading. Reaction from the District? Understandably they don't want to talk about it but that'll never stop the luminaries from the school board in Detroit from weighing in on the matter:
"It doesn't seem credible to me," Scott said. "You can make data for anything you want it to say, but (they) should have factored in the reasons why they left. There's a big part of me that says you don't prove anything by out jumping a legless man but what the heck... lets take a look at what Ms. Scott has to say. After all, she is an elected member of the school board and the President to boot. One might assume she's the best Detroit has to offer. (Ahem. Yikes.) "You can make data for anything you want it to say." Grammatical errors not withstanding, no. No you can't. If you're doing an analytical study you don't make data, period. But let's say you can. I want to say (illustrate) that the sky is neon green and that gravity is a force attempting to hurtle us into space only to be blocked by the telepathic powers of a giant one-eyed benevolent sea monster named Earl. How, pray tell, would one make the data for that? Ms. Scott? Suggestions? Read on...
I think what Ms. Scott was actually going for was "you can make (statistical) data say anything you want."
I think. If that was her destination she got lost along the way. As far as her assertion that they (the researchers) should have factored in the reasons why DPS enrollees failed to graduate in four years... ok? What does that have to do with the statistical number tracking how many actually failed to graduate? It might be nice complimentary data but it wouldn't affect the raw numbers. It wouldn't give you a rosier result. That's not what the graduation RATE measures. And if you want a reason why parents are yanking their kids out of your schools (or a reason why kids are yanking themselves) it might have a little something to do with folks like Ms. Scott. I'm sure she's a fine person (well, I'm not, but I was trying to find something magnanimous to say) but geez louise! If I enrolled in a math academy and the top administrator at the school told the press that he was convinced two plus two equaled three I wouldn't bother to show up for the first day of class. I'd start shopping for a new school immediately. If I were a parent in the city of Detroit and I read a statement like that from the school board president I guarantee you none of my children would ever darken the door of a Detroit Public School. Then again, it's Detroit parents who elect the school board, isn't it? Talk about a vicious cycle. And delusional folks at the top. Sort of like our "leadership" back in Lansing. Mercifully the Governor was out of the State this weekend attending a National Governor's Association conference in Washington, D.C. where she managed to generate a little media coverage popping up on CBS's Sunday morning political talk show. Asked about Michigan's delegates to the Democrat's national convention she seemed to indicate something was going to get done and that they would in fact be seated... good news, right? Sure, if it was true. The AP reports:
(Arizona Gov. Janet) Napolitano also said the thinks the issue will be resolved before the convention. So far so good. If you want to make data to say anything you want it to say just stop reading now. Or else...
BANG! Another bullet fired into hope that the Democrats nationally might stop kicking Michigan around like a red-headed step child. And with every shot that rings out, staggering the Great Lakes State and threatening to put an end to our delegation once and for all you've got folks joining the "re-vote" bandwagon. Of course, they're all Barack Obama supporters. Meaning the State's top Clinton backer is willing to fight for truth, justice and the American way this time and this time only. The Ivory Tower reports:
"The DNC created this problem by the sanctions they used and unfairly applied. The DNC has to fix this problem," Granholm said. Governor Napolitano seems to disagree. So does Howard Dean. So does Barack Obama. So do all of his Michigan supporters. So does everyone at the DNC. So does (almost) the entirety of the regressisphere outside the State of Michigan. So does, well, just about every Democrat in the United States of America. And so Michigan's Democrat delegates continue to sit outside in the cold. While Obama and Clinton continue to skip the State. Continue to avoid. Continue to quarantine like the plague. Oh, but one of them will love and respect and take care of Michigan once they're President. Right. Maybe the DPS school board can make some data to show me how.
Grammar, Granholm and Graduation Rates (but not in that order) | 0 comments ( topical, 0 hidden)
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