35 "Dropout Factories" In CPS

The Associated Press asked researchers to find out how many high-dropout schools there were nationwide and by state, and found stark but perhaps not surprising results:

Study shows nearly 10 pct of high schools are ‘dropout factories’
Peoria Star Journal
At Sullivan High School on Chicago’s North Side, 479 students — the majority of them minority and low-income — enrolled in the class of 2006. By senior year, just 82 of them remained in school.

 Too few grads Chicago Daily Herald A separate report released in July by the Consortium on Chicago School Research found almost half of Chicago Public Schools students don't graduate.

Click below to see the list of 35 CPS sc hools and their cumulative dropout rates.  Click here to see the national view and where Illinois fits in.  For some reason, the local dailies do not appear to have covered this story.

List of Illinois high schools with high dropout rates

City of Chicago School District:

Amundsen High School, 57 percent.

Bogan High School, 53 percent.

Carver Military Academy High School, 40 percent.

Chicago Vocational Career Academy High School, 57 percent.

Clemente Community Academy High School, 50 percent.

Collins High School, 45 percent.

Corliss High School, 50 percent.

Dunbar Vocational Career Academy High School, 47 percent.

Dyett High Schools, 46 percent.

Englewood Technical Prep Academy High School, 34 percent.

Fenger Academy High School, 48 percent.

Foreman High School, 47 percent.

Gage Park High School, 46 percent.

Harlan Community Academy High School, 59 percent.

Harper High School, 33 percent.

Hirsch Metropolitan High School, 35 percent.

Hyde Park Career Academy High School, 51 percent.

Juarez Community Academy High School, 53 percent.

Julian High School, 51 percent.

Kelly High School, 45 percent.

Kelvyn Park High School, 55 percent.

Manley Career Academy High School, 48 percent.

Marshall Metropolitan High School, 51 percent.

Noble Street Charter High School, 60 percent.

Richards Career Academy High School, 50 percent

Robeson High School, 27 percent.

Roosevelt High School, 46 percent.

Schurz High School, 40 percent.

Senn High School, 52 percent.

Steinmetz Academic Centre High School, 52 percent.

Sullivan High School, 18 percent.

Taft High School, 57 percent.

Tilden Career Community Academy High School, 24 percent.

Washington G High School, 58 percent.

Wells Community Academy High School, 49 percent.

Comments

[cermak_rd]

"The numbers also don’t account for students who transferred high schools either inside or outside of their districts and graduated elsewhere."

That line from the first article jumps out at me. If it isn't known if they moved to another school and graduated there, then those stats may indeed be way too high. Note, I have no doubt that they are high, but overstating the problem is not going to help solve it.

Also there are probably multiple reasons why students drop out. The economic reasons are there, for instance. Perhaps CPS could deal with that by offering night or weekend school for youths who work. Because it would be an optional program, maybe it would not have the discipline problems that so many of CPS classrooms have. Another reason is the fact that not all students will academically succeed. The first article mentions that just about all the students retained as freshmen will not graduate. Perhaps it should just be recognized that some students simply cannot/will not do the work necessary to graduate high school. Maybe a non-profit could be employed to try to get these students technical training in a skill so they can do something productive with their lives. It looks like intervention can help in the cases where students just start to slip away but that assumes anyone is going to notice. Maybe that's where small schools can help, because it's going to be more noticeable that Joe isn't going to school consistently when there are only 200 students in the entire school.

[alexander]

my sense is that transfers don't make up such a big portion of those being called dropouts here, though the possibility of transfers (and immigrants going back home) is often used to raise questions in these debates.

if transfers were such a big part of it, wouldn't there be schools whose senior classes actually got bigger, or at least stayed the same, compared to freshman year?

in addition, i think it actually helps to make this situation clear -- not to blame the teachers in those schools or administrators but to make clear that there's a massive problem that policymakers and politicians are ignoring.

just my two cents.

Please note, the above rates are retention rates not dropout rates. I am sure Sullivan would rather have an 18% dropout rate (still not great). I believe the article is saying that is how many of the original freshman class is finishing at that particular high school. Several of the schools on the list have extremely high mobility rates.

[Trappings of Success]

I'm not sure it serves any real purpose, but suppose some of these high schools managed to achieve a 90% retention rate beginning with the the class of 2006. That is, 90% of their 2002-03 9th graders were graduated as seniors in 2006 and the average 9th grade enrollment during the inbetween years remained constant. We will assume, as Alexander suggests, that transfers in and out cancel each other out.

Gage Park High School's enrollment in 2005-06 would have been 2,087, an impossibly high number of students to accommodate there.

Kelly High School's 05-06 enrollment would have been 4,121, an impossibly high number of students to accommodate there.

And so on and so on.

Critics of CPS' Ren10 strategy to open more (mostly charter) new high schools never seem to want to look at this math, which adhering to the laws of space and time would prevent the district from decreasing drop-out rates without simultaneously adding more high school options for kids.

[Charlie]

The original post here is very confusing, because it says "high schools with high drop out rates". Those percentages are not drop out rates, they are retention rates.

Carmita Vaughan, director of the CPS Department of Dropout Prevention and Recovery, said low student retention isn’t just a CPS problem, it’s a national one.

“I really see this as a national crisis,” she said. “What have we as a country done to fail these kids?”

Just like CPS. Don't accept responsibility. Pass the buck!

[drop outs and the logic of the market place]

While we can all cry for the futures of minority students who drop out, in the short run they can save money. Fewer students, especially low income and students with disabilities, equal lower costs for CPS.

This is because you need fewer upper level classes in these drop out factories, hense fewer teachers. Disabled kids clearly cost a lot so the sooner they drop out the greater the saving. Clearly there is a cost for society in terms of lost income tax revenue, but on the other hand if school districts like CPS graduate more students they will drive down the market value of students with only high school diplomas.

The percentage of adults who have four year degrees will not increase if society has more high school graduates. It will remain around 30% no matter what. That is built into the market structure of our economy. Countries that have more college level graudates simply have more educated service sector workers and that simply put is bad economics. In fact we are begining to see some of this actually happening in the US, but many college educated Starbucks workers do eventually find jobs in charter schools anyway.

Drop outs in other words serve a purpose in our economy, contrary to the popular myth put forward by school districts that want more of our tax dollars for improvment programs. It is part of what makes us a rich nation and a good place for business.

They provide an alternative source for low paid workers that are not undocumented aliens. Assuming various societal benefits, like health care, are radically limited in the US there is really only one downside to drop outs. That is crime. In realitiy only a small percentage of drop outs become criminals and criminals in themselves generate a full scale imprisonment industry that provides middle class jobs to a lot of people.

So from my perspective the competitive free market is also the freedom and the necessity of failure. There will always be drop outs, drop outs are not always a bad thing. There is probably no doubt that a CPS drop out is far more educated that an Indian child laborer. What needs to be done to the harness the productive power of the drop outs and utilize their low market value for productive purposes.

Hense I consider small schools, charters,drop out prevention programs, etc to be fighting the logic of our economy.

[Sad Truth]

“I really see this as a national crisis,” she said. “What have we as a country done to fail these kids?”

Saying she (Carmita Vaughn) is passing the buck doesn't answer her question though, does it?

Take a good look at yourself, America.

Acknowledge the sad, sorrowful, and hurtful truth of 6:01's post above.

Politicians pay lip service to public education, particularly our state and local elected officials, but is it true? Has Chicago's economy or the quality of life of the educated Chicago worker suffered in some significant, noticeable way as the result of CPS' continued abysmally large high school drop out rate?

The "smart money" nationally is going all-in on universal pre-K and charterization of public schools. I just don't think reducing the drop out rate is a priority for very many folks. And that's sad.

[1.04]

Some of the people some of the time

Shocking this is just awful our dirty little secret is finally a secret no
More. Ignored in these excuse laden comments is the fact that it was the
Associated Press, which broke this story not our local media.
Perhaps all the Chicago Papers, save Substance, could not do the
Research necessary. As I said before any cub reporter with a phone and
One hour could determine almost 50% of the kids who start High school
In the CPS are not graduating. I wonder how many 8th graders never start?
Our local news media knew but never reported the facts.

But not all of the people all of the time
.

[Tina, a mother trying to keep her son in school]

I'm sure kids drop out of small schools and charters too!
Our kids feel hopeless, they graduate and then what, no jobs no money for college and a society that is rift with violence and hatred!
The news, the movies, video games, people on the street...all angry and hostile to kids.

[trayf]

Just for the record, the retention rate at Big Picture (with an admittedly smaller sample size) was much,much higher. And what did CPS do to reward us? Close us down.

[George Schmidt]

"Click below to see the list of 35 CPS schools and their cumulative dropout rates. Click here to see the national view and where Illinois fits in. For some reason, the local dailies do not appear to have covered this story..."

Garbage in. Garbage out. This "study" is garbage, and below I'll explain some of the whys based on less than an hour of going over it.

First, there is a good reason why no Chicago media should cover this "story" -- it's a bullshit story.

I'd be one of the first in line to complain if our colleagues in Chicago's media were ignoring this big story. But the big story here is how Johns Hopkins University can get its name pasted on a story that is this ridiculous (and, see below, racist).

Except for the lurid, public school bashing marketing hook ("dropout factories"), the story is based on a "study" that deserves to be laughed out of the room.

And I've got to admit I'd love to give a positive review to any "study" or list that included Noble St. Charter ("60 percent"! Oh, really?) after the past year. It's been a year of Noble St. nonsense from the billionaire and millionaire charter fan clubs (from January's visit from Margaret Spellings all the way to the adulation heaped on the place at last week's Charter School Rapture during the Board meeting and the latest hook up -- how else to describe it -- with the University of Illinois).

The list is the problem, not the schools. It's worse than bad it's so messed up.

Take a couple of closer looks at that Chicago list and assume that it's a microcosm of what has been done nationally.

1. At first, the Chicago list seems to be a good (if not perfect) match with Chicago's general high schools (the ones with the signs on the door saying that you can go here if you can prove your address and your age). Not one selective enrollment public high school is on the Chicago list (unless Carver Military is such, which I'm beginning to wonder). Noble Street is the only Chicago charter high school (Miirta Ramirez and CICS Longwood were around long enough for a closer look by the time the list was compiled). Once we're looking at the general high schools, we're analyzing academic, social and economic triage, not "education." The ZIP Code is a very good predictor -- city, suburb, rural. Match median family income with school. No need for "dropout factory" studies.

In other words, the tracking has taken place prior to the beginning of 9th grade (at least for Chicago). The context has to get a long, hard look. In Chicago, "high school" is really two enormous separate and unequal tracks -- the selectives and other (generally, the generals). To leave that fact out is dishonest, especially when you're using a headline grabbing hook like "dropout factories." (Why not say Chicago is a "dropout factory" because such a large percentage of high school-age kids never finish high school in four years?)

[Check for Yoursefl]

Anyone can go to the CPS website under REA Citywide Reports and download copies of the 2002-03 and 2005-06 membership reports. All high schools are listed there.

Pick a high school and do the math. George raises some interesting questions, but these schools do lose many students between 9th and 12th grade.

[Ihate the upc]

Dropouts don't start in high school. They begin in the overly large first grade classes where many children never learn to read properly or comfortably. Someone who cannot do high school level work knows it and feels lost and stupid no matter how we try to cover the truth.
And yes, tracking begins before high school. We don't have essential, basic, regular, honors, AP. But we have essential and basic high schools(regular neighborhood public high schools), alleged regular(charters) and of course our honors high schools.
What's a normal school supposed to do with a bunch of non-readers at the high school level?

I am amazed how everyone is deflecting the blame.

It's the kids
It's the zip codes
It's the nations
It's the parents
It's the community

Will anyone on this site give some charters any credit? I would like for George to find one charter school and say something good about it.
People have to take a good look in the mirror and then get to work.

[Which charters?]

11:09,

Re:"Will anyone on this site give some charters any credit?"

Sure. Which ones do you recommend and why?

[drop outs and the logic of the market place]

I will give the charters some credit. At least they are paying teachers less than the unionized schools are. But overall they appear to cost nearly the same. As I said before, no plan, no program, no fake market based reform like supposed school choice are going to really reduce drop outs.

Drop outs are a necessity, we need low wage workers. We as a nation if anything need more drop outs along with an elimination of the minimum wage in order to effectively operate in the global economy. What I like the most about the whole debate on charters on this blog is that both sides avoid reality. Schools are not some great pathway to economic democracy, they are part of our competitive economic system.

For what ever perverse reason our society has decided to provide free public education, a concept not known by the founding fathers. Fortunately for all of us the free market is such a powerfull and great force that it has driven this socialist public education system in a manner that does serve a purpose.

It creates better workers, part of that is failing students, and yes, creating drop outs. Drop outs are an economic necessity.

[Greg]

Being a math teacher at Sullivan for the last 3 years, I can tell you one of the biggest flaws in this article. We have a very low retention rate because we have a very high mobility rate. Rogers Park is well known as a port of entry for many immigrants, as well as having many transient families. I sign out at least 50 students who are transferring to different schools every year - and their reason for leaving, often, is that their family moved. Do we have drop-outs? Sure. Every school does. But I am sure that Sullivan and many other schools on this list arebeing misrepresented to prove whatever point this article is attempting to make.

Should we consider paying students to go to school?

[Eric]

RE: Charters
A question, when a charter school has deemed that a student is not worthy where does that student go? Answer: Their neigborhood/general high school. SO the numbers, in regards to Charter successes, are skewed. You can not compare apples to oranges, nor can you compare charters to public schools (especially the general schools).

Another issue to consider is that these "factories" are being held accountable for students that NEVER showed up to school. All schools were told to keep students that didn't show to school on their roll. We had over 100 freshman students that were on our roll on 9/4/07 that never intended to enter our building. Many of these students were enrolled elsewhere, yet we could not drop them. Apparently these students will count against us.

Finally, I challenge anyone who feels that we are doing a poor job to walk a mile in our shoes. CPS has plenty of talented teachers many of which are teaching in the so called factories. Anyone can teach a highly motivated student with parental support, such as those at the selective schools. It takes true talent to motivate and teach those that are viewed as rejects by the system, to motivate and teach those that do not have support at home, to motivate and teach those that are expeccted to fail.

Yes, the drop out rates are unacceptable. But to name schools a drop out factory is a shame. There are many students at these factories that are doing incredible things and for them to think that they may be short changed because someone crunched some numbers without actually entering the institution is a shame. Our schools, our students, are much more than a simple number. Be outraged, but do something about this. Rather than bash these schools ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING to help them.

Eric, failing doesn't mean you are not working hard.

Let's face it. CPS neighborhood schools are failing their students. Admitting what is happening instead of providing every excuse is the first step towards solving the problem.

OK, forget the dropout rate. 6% of CPS graduates earn a 4-year degree in 5 years. This means 3% of students who start high school in CPS graduate from college.

These schools are failing.

Most of these schools are in areas with extremely high mobility. A big problem that I'd love to see CPS actually try and address is the large population of transient students who move every 1-2 years.

[George Schmidt]

I will go to any charter that provides me with all of the information about its personnel, budgets, and programs at the same level the public schools have to. I'll have a list of those requirements one week before the beginning of the tour. Afterwards, more questions.

Short list: the "Position Files" (all employees); W-2 files for all employees; contracts for all sub-contracting work; capital budgets (that's plural; charters get at least four capital funds; publics are told "there's no money" for capital work).

Add: All revenue sources (including donations; Renaissance 2010 Fund; other). Every detail on how the building has been acquired, including ownership and all the other data.

That's the basic money data.

Next: personnel: A list of all personnel, teaching and non-teaching (along with CV, work history, certficiation). Background data (including checks). "All personnel" includes administrators (no matter what the title), EMO guys; security; top dogs (Aspira Haugan has three principals: an uber principal; a "principal" for each "school.")

Next: student data. This includes all "contracts" that the children and families sign. Mobility information. The "waiting list" if one's claimed.

A close look at any school involves more than Power Point and some gushing testimonials. I've endured those bug-eyed hustles since I began writing critically about schools in the 1970s. My favorite of all time is still Marva Collins (who always had a phalanx of ladies shouting about how great Marva was just when you asked the wrong question).

Current events -- the Immaculate Heart of Mary "Campus" of CICS. By the time I began taking my exterior photographs, I had first one, then two, and finally three security guys trying to block my camera. I clearly identified myself as a reporter. Bluster. Threats.

Then, a "dean." Then the EMO "coordinator". For a school with 203 students that's lots of top dogs and guards. Three security guys -- in a very very middle class community for a school with 200 little kids!

It was a curiosity why they needed three rent-a-cops, all of whom were adverse to photographs, all with those Dollar Store badges you see from various "security" types. None of whom would say for whom they worked. ("The school...").

Let me know when your favorite charter school is ready to answer all of the preliminary questions and maybe I'll spend a week inside one -- a complete story, classroom by classroom and activity by activity.

After the time inside, there will be additional transparency questions. Meanwhile, another requirement is that charters lobby to be held "accountable" for all of the same public data as the real publics. Not ot just cherry picked data like they cherry pick students. Oh, and an end to "campuses".

[George Schmidt]

I will go to any charter that provides me with all of the information about its personnel, budgets, and programs at the same level the public schools have to. I'll have a list of those requirements one week before the beginning of the tour. Afterwards, more questions.

Short list: the "Position Files" (all employees); W-2 files for all employees; contracts for all sub-contracting work; capital budgets (that's plural; charters get at least four capital funds; publics are told "there's no money" for capital work).

Add: All revenue sources (including donations; Renaissance 2010 Fund; other). Every detail on how the building has been acquired, including ownership and all the other data.

That's the basic money data.

Next: personnel: A list of all personnel, teaching and non-teaching (along with CV, work history, certficiation). Background data (including checks). "All personnel" includes administrators (no matter what the title), EMO guys; security; top dogs (Aspira Haugan has three principals: an uber principal; a "principal" for each "school.")

Next: student data. This includes all "contracts" that the children and families sign. Mobility information. The "waiting list" if one's claimed.

A close look at any school involves more than Power Point and some gushing testimonials. I've endured those bug-eyed hustles since I began writing critically about schools in the 1970s. My favorite of all time is still Marva Collins (who always had a phalanx of ladies shouting about how great Marva was just when you asked the wrong question).

Current events -- the Immaculate Heart of Mary "Campus" of CICS. By the time I began taking my exterior photographs, I had first one, then two, and finally three security guys trying to block my camera. I clearly identified myself as a reporter. Bluster. Threats.

Then, a "dean." Then the EMO "coordinator". For a school with 203 students that's lots of top dogs and guards. Three security guys -- in a very very middle class community for a school with 200 little kids!

It was a curiosity why they needed three rent-a-cops, all of whom were adverse to photographs, all with those Dollar Store badges you see from various "security" types. None of whom would say for whom they worked. ("The school...").

Let me know when your favorite charter school is ready to answer all of the preliminary questions and maybe I'll spend a week inside one -- a complete story, classroom by classroom and activity by activity.

After the time inside, there will be additional transparency questions. Meanwhile, another requirement is that charters lobby to be held "accountable" for all of the same public data as the real publics. Not ot just cherry picked data like they cherry pick students. Oh, and an end to "campuses".