So who are these students making up the 13% not graduating? According to our data, credit recovery efforts are helping students catch up after falling behind BUT we are seeing significant amounts of failures in core classes (math, English, science and social studies). In 2012, our data showed 86% of incoming sophomore passed all their core classes. Pretty good and aligned to our consistent grad rate. The problems begin during their sophomore year where we saw only 48% pass all their core classes last year.
Why do they fail? Polling teachers you hear things like a lack of "grit", "perseverance" and "effort". Besides work ethic, low academic skills also contribute to failing grades. If students lack skills, they will often disengage and not ask for help. To avoid embarrassment they may simply not do the work leading to poor grades.
We need to determine a diagnosis for every student failing. Once the problem is identified, we can try different treatments until hopefully one helps. Will we be able to graduate every student? Of course not--but if we can help one more student, our efforts will be worth it.
We are currently drafting an action plan detailing 3 goals with multiple objectives, strategies and actions based on research to address our 13%ers. Stay tuned for details of the plan next month.
The 13%ers are OUR kids. We must be relentless in our efforts to support our low readers, students with learning disabilities, our economical disadvantaged, our second language learners and our kids who have simply given up because they don't have the mindset they can do it.
We will continue to care for our kids and preach a strong work ethic. We will never quit and embrace the struggle to support our students. We will offer feedback early and often in a pursuit of continual growth. And most importantly we will approach this work with Respect, Honor and Strength. Who knows...maybe I'll be blogging about our 10%ers next year.
