Tuesday, November 30, 2010

U.S. School Graduation Rate Is Found to Be Rising - NYTimes.com

U.S. School Graduation Rate Is Rising

By SAM DILLON

Published: November 30, 2010

¶The nation’s high school graduation rate, which declined in the latter part of the 20th century, may have hit bottom and begun to rise, according to a report to be issued Tuesday by a nonprofit group founded by former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell.

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¶“The United States is turning a corner in meeting the high school dropout epidemic,” General Powell and his wife, Alma J. Powell, wrote in a letter introducing the report.

¶The report cites two statistics. The national graduation rate increased to 75 percent in 2008, from 72 percent in 2001. And the number of high schools that researchers call dropout factories — based on a formula that compares a school’s 12th-grade enrollment with its 9th-grade enrollment three years earlier — declined to about 1,750 in 2008, from about 2,000 such schools in 2002.

¶But the report notes that progress in some states and school districts had not been matched in others. Tennessee and New York made “breakthrough gains,” sharply raising their graduation rates from 2002 to 2008, the report says. In Arizona, Utah and Nevada, graduation rates dropped significantly.

¶The 88-page report, “Building a Grad Nation,” was published by America’s Promise Alliance, along with two other groups. “I like this report because it shows that progress is possible against all odds,” said Marguerite W. Kondracke, the alliance’s president.

¶Daniel Losen, a former Harvard lecturer who researches graduation issues, said the report “might be a bit on the rosy side.” He added, “We might be beginning to turn a corner, but we’re not coming out of it yet.”

¶The report cites school districts that have made progress, as well as some where the crisis has worsened.

¶In 2005, researchers at Johns Hopkins University identified Richmond High School in Indiana as a dropout factory. But from 2006 to 2009, teachers, community leaders and professors joined in an effort to help students stay in school, raising the graduation rate to 80 percent from 53 percent, the report says.

¶In Las Vegas, however, dropouts soared during the building boom of the last decade because many young people quit high school for jobs in construction and landscaping. Today, many dropouts there are unemployed.

The Root Cities: Miami Power

In the first of a series profiling the Magic City, The Root takes a look at who's got the power in the 3-0-5.

By: Michael Ottey | Posted: November 22, 2010 at 5:50 PM

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This fall's midterm elections ushered in a new era for Miami politics: U.S. Rep. Kendrick B. Meek, once a big player in South Florida, came in dead last in a three-way Senate race against Gov. Charlie Crist and Republican Marco Rubio. And two black Republicans made big gains this November, winning both the lieutenant governor spot and a seat in Congress.

Meek, who was the go-to congressman on issues of special concern to the black community, including Haiti and the plight of Haitians, gave up his safe 17th Congressional District seat to run for the Senate. Now the cowboy-hat-loving Frederica Wilson, minority whip of the Florida State House, will replace him in Congress. Jennifer Carroll will become the first black female lieutenant governor in Florida, while the controversial Allen West, a Tea Party favorite, will take a seat in Congress.

Meek has been pushed to the sidelines.

"There is now a vacuum in terms of African-American leadership in South Florida," observes Joy-Ann Reid, a Miami Herald columnist, political analyst and editor of the Reid Report.

For more than a decade, Meek controlled the 17th District. The seat was first held by the much revered Carrie P. Meek, Kendrick's mother. When she chose not to seek re-election in 2003, her son stepped up and rose to national prominence. But this time around, blacks in Miami did not show up at the polls in the numbers necessary to propel him to the top -- or at least give him a chance at winning. Nor did the Democratic Party leadership do much to help him out in what turned out to be a highly contentious race against a Tea Party favorite and a moderate Republican governor-turned-independent. (President Bill Clinton reportedly urged Meek to drop out of the race; Rubio won.)

Still, says Reid, Meek never really had a chance. "I'm not sure an African American who is not named Barack Obama could have won that race. I have to be honest. You can't ignore the race factor."

In racially stratified Miami, black politicians don't seem to carry much weight. In recent years, it seems, local black politicians have spent more time defending themselves against corruption allegations than focusing on the people's business. Such is the case of Miami Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones, 43, beloved by her constituents despite her legal troubles regarding an alleged $25,000 bribe.

Which is too bad, when you consider how much Barack Obama's election in 2008 energized Miami's black community. Blacks make up just 22 percent of the population in this heavily Latino city, and with the presidential election, many residents, who had never bothered to vote before, proudly stood in long lines at the polls. After Obama's election, the electricity in the city was palpable. Two years later, on the main corridors of Little Haiti and Overtown and Liberty City, painted murals of the president abound. But that excitement has yet to translate to local politics.

Community leaders say that what is needed in Miami is more black participation in the political process. If blacks turn out at the polls in low numbers, it affects the community in many ways, none of it good, officials say. And black leaders then appear weak without the clear backing of their constituents.

Few Miami black politicians have the juice to take on the power role that Meek once played. Spence-Jones is one of the few with enough star power, but she is facing bribery and grand-theft charges.

By many accounts, Spence-Jones has done right by her community, bringing much-needed dollars and development. It's perhaps one reason that even as she faced charges of bribery -- much of it playing out in the local press -- she was still re-elected. Her victory forced Gov. Crist to again suspend her. He had already suspended her before her re-election.

Nor is she the only black Miami politico to face such charges. In recent years, local black politicians have spent much of their time in office fighting allegations of wrongdoing. One of the most notorious cases of alleged corruption was that of Miami-Dade Commissioner Arthur Teele. He committed suicide in July 2005, after an investigation and trial led then-Gov. Jeb Bush to remove him from office.

Teele was convicted of corruption and making threats against a police officer, but the charges were overturned on appeal almost two years after his death.

Reid says the rise of black Republicans is certainly the Miami story that will play out in the years ahead. West has already caused rifts with fellow black politicians in Washington by criticizing the Congressional Black Caucus. Another darling of the Tea Party movement, West is a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel. His 22nd Congressional District includes parts of Palm Beach County.

In an interview with Fox News following his election, West said he would join the CBC despite his misgivings with the group as an organization that promotes welfare programs and dependence on government.

"The Congressional Black Caucus cannot continue to be a monolithic voice that promotes these liberal social welfare policies and programs that are failing in the black community, that are preaching victimization and dependency, that's not the way that we should go," West told Fox News. "And those are not the types of principles that my mother and father raised me with in the inner city of Atlanta."

With Wilson, Carroll and West taking office and the impending trial of Spence-Jones, Florida can expect to have a place of prominence on the national political stage, the good and the bad playing out. If nothing else, the CBC meetings just got interesting.

Michael Ottey is a freelance editor and writer based in Miami. Follow him on Twitter.

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Foreign Policy's Second Annual List of the 100 Top Global Thinkers | Foreign Policy

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The FP Top 100 Global Thinkers

Foreign Policy presents a unique portrait of 2010's global marketplace of ideas and the thinkers who make them.

DECEMBER 2010

1. Warren Buffett and Bill Gates

for stepping up as the world's states falter.

CHAIRMAN, BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY | OMAHA, NEB.

CO-CHAIR, BILL AND MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION | SEATTLE

If you were one of the 1,011 billionaires in the world, what would you do with all that money? Famed investor Warren Buffett (net worth: an estimated $47 billion) and Microsoft founder Bill Gates ($54 billion) have an idea: Give at least half of it away.

FP's Second Annual Top 100 Global Thinkers

The two billionaires have been traveling the world -- first to China and soon to India, as well as around the United States -- on a mission to create a global club of "Great Givers" who will transform philanthropy from a pastime of the wealthy into a calling for everyone who is rich. Since 2006, when Buffett pledged to give 99 percent of his assets away to charity -- much of it to Gates's foundation, which spends more than $2 billion yearly on programs to improve public health and development -- the two have emerged as an unlikely and formidable pairing of wealthy evangelists, preaching a breathtakingly ambitious new gospel of how capitalist riches can solve global problems. That became clear this year when Gates joined up with Buffett's project to convince the wealthiest elite from Silicon Valley to Shanghai to donate half their wealth, a challenge that, if answered by all America's billionaires, let alone the world's, could bring an estimated $600 billion to needy and deserving causes. So far, 40 billionaires have signed up.

As the world has lost confidence in the ability of countries and institutions like the United Nations to solve global problems, Gates offers an attractive alternative vision: that the business community's relentless drive to innovate can help with our biggest challenges, from malaria to food scarcity to illiteracy. And he has the money to prove it. At a recent conference on HIV/AIDS, Gates pledged more than the government of either Norway or Australia, and almost as much as the entire European Commission. His foundation's funding for research into microbicides -- gels that would prevent HIV transmission -- helped lead to the first real breakthrough this July, when a candidate gel showed 39 percent effectiveness. Whether it's a green revolution for Africa or a vaccine for malaria, Gates's agenda is now the global agenda -- and he and Buffett won't stop until they see it through.

Mark Peterson/Redux

Monday, November 29, 2010

Latin American Herald Tribune - Miami Dade College Marks 50 Years as Model of Education for Hispanics

Miami Dade College Marks 50 Years as Model of Education for Hispanics

MIAMI – Miami Dade College commemorates this week its 50th year as the center of higher education with the greatest number of students in the United States and as a model of quality teaching for Hispanic undergraduates.

With 171,000 students from 182 different countries, MDC is known in the United States as an example of college education for minority groups and for Latin American countries that need to improve their educational standards.

“Education is key to a nation’s development. We live in a world dominated by a knowledge economy and without education there is no hope for development,” MDC President Eduardo Padron tells Efe.

“Education is vital for the Hispanic community, and for the United States having Latinos and other minorities go to college is a matter of survival,” the 66-year-old Padron, who became head of the school in 1995, said.

On Thursday, MDC commemorates its 50th anniversary at a time when its reputation is at its highest point ever for the number of students it graduates every year, for the name and the fame it has acquired and for the national influence exercised by Padron himself.

Born in Santiago de Cuba, Padron came to the United States as an exile when he was 15, and for 40 years he has been associated with Miami Dade College.

“When I came to the United States and they asked me what I wanted to be, I said I wanted to be rich. Not an engineer, not a businessman, not an economist, I wanted to be rich. I worked in several companies where I could have made myself rich, but I discovered that my vocation was education, which I still pursue with the same passion,” he said.

Padron was selected in 2009 by Time magazine as one of the nation’s 10 best college presidents, and this year President Barack Obama named him chairman of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans.

The goal of this effort is to create a national awareness of the importance of education and “convince the country that the challenge is to educate each and every one of its citizens,” he said.

“Nobody and least of all Hispanics can be marginalized. Without going to college there are no opportunities. Human potential is infinite and university education is the key to collective prosperity,” Padron said.

With the turbulent political climate surrounding immigration in the United States, which is giving Hispanics a very negative image, Padron sees a need to boost educational standards and reduce the high dropout rate among Hispanics.

“People without a university degree can expect to earn no more than a minimum wage. Those with only a high school diploma have three times more likelihood to be jobless than those who have graduated from college,” he said.

In the face of that situation, the role of institutions like Miami Dade College is make getting a degree possible for students who, because of their academic qualifications, cannot get into most universities.

“Our open-door policy allows students without sufficient initial learning to begin taking a course. We welcome with open arms students who don’t belong to the elite and we facilitate their learning. For that reason MDC is a real factory of dreams,” Padron said.

The MDC president stressed how much merit there is in preparing these students “because we already know that those who go to Harvard are going to succeed,” given their solid educational attainments.

Padron said that the experience of Miami Dade College now serves as an example for schools in Brazil, Colombia and Argentina, whose rectors maintain ties of collaboration to improve the standards of college teaching in those countries.

“Latin America has to establish a system of higher education for the middle class, not just for the elite as has been the case up to now. The current formula that increases the gap between rich and poor only leads to disaster,” he said.

The main event commemorating MDC’s 50th anniversary will take place Thursday at the iconic Freedom Tower of Miami with a ceremony to which the leaders, companies, alumni and the most representative figures of South Florida have been invited. EFE

A weekend interview with Miami-Dade schools superintendent Alberto Carvalho | Education articles blog on schools in Florida & Tampa Bay: the Gradebook | tampabay.com & St. Petersburg Times

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JULY 24, 2010

A weekend interview with Miami-Dade schools superintendent Alberto Carvalho

It didn't take long after Florida school districts received their late FCAT results for questions to arise about whether the scores were accurate. Miami-Dade superintendent Alberto Carvalho helped organize a group of some of the state's largest districts to publicly challenge the results and call for an independent review of the test. Carvalho spoke with reporter Jeff Solochek about how the questions first came about, why the districts joined forces and what he expects to happen in the end.

I am really interested in how you came to find the situation with the FCAT scores. I understand that you were one of the leaders in determining that there were problems.

I was one of about five or six superintendents that had conversations about the anomalies we detected. The way I personally got to develop a concern regarding this matter was, after a release of NAEP data ... we were a participating district, and according to NAEP, which is the nation's report card, Miami-Dade outperformed every other urban district in America in reading and math. Subsequent to that, we received the FCAT third grade and then the full release of the FCAT data. That data also revealed that our students performed exceptionally well compared to the state. So our rate of growth in reading and math was five times and two times the rate of growth for the state, respectively.

So we celebrated that. We were very surprised as we began to analyze the data in more detail. What we do is we look at the accountability formula and we understand clearly how points are assigned. And we realized that notwithstanding the very healthy growth for Miami-Dade children, that there were specific anomalies that our data people recognized ... in grades four and five in elementary school, primarily in reading, to a lesser extent in math, and senior high school ninth and tenth grade. Where the anomalies were identified were primarily in the gains from last year - 2009 - to the current year - 2010. The gains account for 50 percent of the points in the school grade formula.

So what we noticed was, overall students did very well in Miami-Dade. They outpaced the rate of growth for the state as a whole, as I noted earlier. But the learning gains, particularly for the lowest quartile of students, were so out of joint with the previous trends that alarmed us.

Did you worry at all that by bringing this up you might throw a wrench in the entire FCAT system?

I hope it doesn't. Let me wrap up your question. The anomalies were detected by data people, statisticians. And data people began to talk with data people across the state. And they began to ask questions - are you seeing the same trends that we are seeing? Are you seeing the same anomalies? And data folks bumped up these concerns to superintendents. I know some superintendents began contacting the Department of Education independently with these questions. And a group of superintendents - I think at that time a group of five or six superintendents ... basically felt very, very strongly about our collective position on a number of issues. That's when we decided to raise the questions with the Department of Education.

To answer your second question, actually, we decided to do this to protect the integrity of the state's accountability system. I believe if we detected anomalies, they ought to be corrected in fact not to implode the accountability system but to protect it. And the only way you protect the integrity is by ensuring that there is an honest and transparent accounting of student learning.

Do you find that the state's reaction is one that gets to that transparency? I know the questions of HUMRRO and its connection to Pearson immediately came up.

Yes. We had a concern about that. And that's why we urged the commissioner and the state Department of Education to consider a true third-party independent entity that would conduct the audit. And I believe the commissioner who, by the way, has always listened to the concerns of the state superintendents, and I believe he will do it again as he is doing it again. So in addition to that first entity that has been working with the department all along, he has commissioned another entity to conduct this third-party independent audit. And I am quite frankly appreciative of the fact that he has expanded the audit, the examination, dramatically to include an audit of the design of the instrument going back to 2007, ... the actual scores over time, as well as reliability and validity issues that have been questioned this year.

What happens if the results come back and they show that there are huge problems?

Well then I believe with so much riding, with so many consequences which result from this data with real human impact, specific to the appointment of principals, in this era of accountability particularly as we go into school improvement grant requirements, as well as Race to the Top requirements, I think if the anomalies are validated, then it is incumbent upon the state to provide solutions. Immediate solutions as well as long-term solutions.

What I mean by immediate solutions are solutions that do not penalize students and schools and teachers - educators across the board - because of technical deficiencies in the process. The state did this a few years ago when it encountered similar anomalies in third grade performance. So that year they discounted the third grade results. There are ways that, using multi-year data and providing a bridge this year without relying on this year's data if it is compromised.

Long term, I think the state needs to think long and hard. If this is in fact a permanent fix for the long haul, the state ought to bring together some of the stakeholders from across districts, individuals who understand and know data, listen to the recommendations on how some of the elements of the accountability system can be improved. ...

I am one, my position when I was asked to chair the Race to the Top task force, and I have been asked once again to work with the commissioner, the chancellor, FEA president Andy Ford and the governor on the Phase 2 application of Race to the Top, I have been very clear. I support teacher quality. I support accountability. I support increased standards. But I am also saying that in the global context of a system that adequately, accurately and transparently captures it all. So that if in fact we are going to look at teacher performance based in part on student achievement data, that our confidence in that data is unquestionable.

Does this affect the Race to the Top application that you were working on?

I don't think so. Because I believe that the commissioner is extremely interested in taking on this issue and erasing any questions to a valid process that may exist regarding the validity and reliability of this data. I understand that mistakes happen. I understand glitches occur. But I think ultimately we're measured on our ability to respond to them, rectify them and move forward. And I believe that is what the commissioner is in the process of doing.

What about the schools and the students? Because like you said, a lot is riding on this, yet there are questions about the results.

We don't have time to wait. That is why we urged the commissioner to indefinitely postpone the release of the school grades. After all, we were not expecting grades for senior high schools to be released until some time in October or November because of the new high school grading formula ... So we urged the commissioner, 'Take your time and do it right. Don't rush and get it wrong. ... Release the school grades after this careful examination. And if we don't get them until October, I'm okay with it.' Because basically we have used other data points including interim assessments that we administer here in Miami-Dade, in addition to ACT and SAT data, in addition to many other ways of generating student achievement data that have allowed us to place students in the right courses, in the right grades, in the right programs. We did the same thing with teachers and principals. So as I made my moves ... in my schoolwide reorganization, I didn't depend this year as much on the state data as I would have liked to. I looked at it. I examined it carefully. But I looked at it with a doubtful eye toward fourth and fifth grade performance because that is exactly what I am questioning. And I substituted for that data other internal inputs using the same benchmarks, addressing the same competencies via locally administered assessments that we administer at least four times a year.

Do you think smaller school districts have the same capacity to do what your district, and Hillsborough and some of the bigger ones can in that regard?

Actually, I don't think so. I actually think that is one of the vulnerabilities statewide. That is why after the first wave of concern was raised by the first five or six superintendents who came together, there was a second wave of about 30 districts that joined our concerns. ... They in fact realized they were vulnerable to the same anomalies. But as you and I know, there are some small districts in the state of Florida that depend on consortia to address data needs, to address purchasing power, etc. So I think they came to it a little later, even though some independently had expressed concerns to the commissioner themselves. But I think they are at a disadvantage because some of these smaller districts don't necessarily have research and evaluation departments that can very quickly process massive amounts of data and conduct analysis that led to our identification of the anomalies.

So what can they do to get their kids into the right places, and their teachers and principals to the right assignments? Or is that just something they are going to have to struggle through?

I think in this era of accountability, as we are moving schools through differentiated accountability and school improvement grant requirements, I think all districts in the state of Florida have to use data strategically to make appropriate decisions about the placement of students. I think effective districts, and I think this takes place pretty much across the board, don't rely solely on state data. They also have internal assessments that gauge student achievement more periodically than the one time a year assessment of the FCAT. So the more they have of those instruments available to them, and they have that data, I think they can move toward the appropriate placement of students not necessarily relying solely on the FCAT.

Is there a message that parents and students can take from what is happening with the FCAT and the summer of discontent over it?

The message I have been sending out is ... when our doors open in August, students will not be able to discern any difference between the level of quality of teaching they benefited from last year and that of this year. This is an issue that professionals in the field of education will keep wrestling with, but that will not be noticeable to the students. And I think that's the most important message to the students and to the parents. There will be an evolution no matter what, that hopefully will lead to a stronger, more accountable system in the state of Florida. Unfortunately it comes as a result of some confusion, some doubt. But if this leads to a more accountable, transparent, valid and reliable accountability system, then I think it was worth the pain.

Shame on us if after detecting anomalies, after testing anomalies and getting conclusive results either way, shame on us if we don't do something with it to in fact improve the accountability system in the state of Florida both respecting the effort of teachers and the contributions the students have made.

Posted by Jeff Solochek at 11:00:05 am on July 24, 2010 in

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Gabriel Jul 24, 2010 2:42 PM
Well said, Superintendent Carvalho, well said.
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rolltide Jul 24, 2010 4:38 PM
hopefully this will be the beginning of the end of FCAT and Jeb Bush smoke and mirrors education policy!
get rid of all incumbent board members in August
get rid of all incumbent state legislators in November.
elect Alex Sink and Dan Gelber to the state Cabinet and we'll wipe Jeb Bush, Johnny Trasher and the fascist R's from Florida education forever!
Teachers have the power!
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our loss Jul 24, 2010 7:43 PM
Carvalho is so eloquent, he should have been Pinellas County's superintendent...
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