Failing Grades: 30% of U.S. h.s. students do not graduate. How do we fix the problem?

Question

I live in Oakland Ca. 60% of students do not graduate. Problems are, lack of parental support, poverty, and over all apathy and lack of funding on the city and admin level.

Where the median property value for a single family home is in the 500k range, it angers me that the schools are so underfunded.

I have to agree with most of you that a lot of the responsibility relys on the parenting and values that are instilled in children.

Just a bit of info regarding people that can afford 500k homes in the bay area: The majority of these parents put their kids in private schools. If your children are lucky enough to go to a good public school, it is because you live in a neighborhood where the majority of the homes go for 1million +. i.e. the Piedmont in Oakland.

The majority of the population are renters.

The bay area is a good example of where the very wealthy and the very poor live. Not much of a middle class, maybe this is the reason for the drastic statistics behind education.

Answer 1

What happened to "No Child Left Behind"? Some of you do not understand the full spectrum of problems presented by cash shortages. Inadequate funding eliminates programs proven to help students succeed, such as comprehensive school reform, drop-out prevention, parental assistance centers, and history, arts, and foreign language education.
Proper funding means adequate resources for smaller class sizes, increased teacher training and parental involvement, expanded early childhood and after-school services, and new textbooks, more computers, and other educational materials. Schools also pay for standardized testing and transportation as well. When the money isn't there students suffer. Cash strapped schools combine classrooms when they can't afford enough teachers and the kids don't get the one on one time. Parents need to do more, but so does the government. Shifting one tenth of what we are spending on Iraq to education would effectively double the budget for all schools nationwide.

Answer 2

Wrong on all counts. Granted, parents can help--and funding is a problem.

But--as usual, you've made the mistake of ignoring the core of the problem: the schools are not doing their jobs.

For example (and this is not an isolated case) this morning on Yahoo (and CNN) there was a story abot a studnent disciplined--for giving his girlfriend a hug. The teacher sseem to be more interested in enforcing a set of rules that would make Orwell blush than in teaching. And then they will complain that the students don't respect them. Of ccourse the teachers wn't get respect now--because kids oare not stupid and no one respects a bully.

Our schools have become behavioral modification camps instead of institutions of learning. Everyone likes to fault the parents. True, a minority don't do what they should. Funding is important--but the problem heere is simple: not enough money available for even the basics for schools in low-income areas.

But the BIG problem is schools and teachers who don't teach. For decades whe've seen this same pattern: declining outcomes and an education profession that keeps blaming everyone and everything but itself.

Answer 3

It really all starts in the home. If their is lack of parental support nothing will happen. I've noticed it with my parents parents and then look at how my parents did in school. I look at Baltimore's school system where no one even shows up at open house. It's this whole viscous cycle. It really is sad. I just know the no child left behind laws are not worth it. and actually they are meant to spread out funding evenly but end up costing us (the taxpayers). We really can't keep a child from failing if that is what they plan on doing. IT's a mindset that they were unfairly given. People have been trying to fix the problem for years. I believe in introducing magnet programs are a good idea to give the kids something to get excited about school. Like art programs. culinary, robotics, journalism, science. It's a really great idea however even with these schools, it's the kids that don't really care about anything including themselves that pose the problem.

Answer 4

Sorry, you can't pin this one on throwing more money at the problem.

You already have listed the problem, and therefore the solution.

Parental support AND control over where and what their kids are doing. I bet the parents don't even know when homework is to be done, or even if their children are in school.

The buck has to stop with the ones that can influence the kids the most, and that is the parent.

Answer 5

Put the blame squarely where it belongs, the parents. It the parents don't care, the child won't.
If living in a 500k home is more important that seeing that the child masters algebra,
then that's what you get.
Also, we have a new language. TEXT!
If someone is too bleepin lazy to spell out "are you" but instead uses the short cut r u, then that p[erson is going to be looking for shortcuts all his life. It don't work that way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Also, a good teacher could teach in a barn.
So, to me, underfunding is a lame excuse.
Teachers get laid off, band and glee club get cut, but the administrators get their raises. Who runs the school. School boards? God save us.

Answer 6

$500 thousand dollar homes are not uncommon in california. i live here in a fairly new suburb of a large city. the schools are new, beautiful, state of the art equipment. the place is run like crap. we happen to get a lot of families from oakland and they have some of the worst attitudes i have ever seen. parents and students.


kids come to school with bad attitudes knowing that you cannot do anything to them. they dont care if you call their parents, they dont care if you get the VP, they dont care if you give them detention or assignments or referrals....they dont care about anything but their cell phones or newest love interest.

if you do call home, you get lip service or the parents blame you. these students have ruined their brand new facilities, and they have plenty of funds, ruined education for those who want to learn and follow the rules, and they see no value in getting an education.

yes, i know this is not true for everyone, but is definitely a rising trend.

california spends 48% of its budget on education.

Answer 7

Although poverty and underfunded schools assist in the percent of students who do not graduate, I believe that ultimately parents/guardians should be held responsible. We as parents do not instill the value of education in our children. Yes, we depend on our teachers to educate our children and yes they should inform us if they see a problem- however, once the information is provided to us, parents should be responsible for the execution of solving those problems. So many parents (poverty levels or not) are selfish- doing drugs, alcoholics, business professionals who prefer making money over family values, hiring nannies who only 'watch' our kids and not teach them, etc... simply we do not help our children grow, only force them to discipline themselves.
How can we come up with a legal solution? I'm not quite for sure, but maybe if the scare of neglect charges come up, more action will be forced for the parents to begin the discipline with themselves.

Answer 8

VocalDemocrat makes a great point at my school we dont even have walls between classes and we have broken desks and ripped books. While they are making the football staduim larger way too much money is put into sports. People need to releize school is for getting an education not learning how to play football.

Answer 9

One of the biggest issues right now is education reform. They keep setting these benchmarks (ie. No Child Left Behind). Most of them require regular testing. Teachers then have to drop the normal curriculum in favor of teaching the students how to pass a specific test.

Add to this zero tolerance policies that completely ruin any hope of older students respecting the faculty-how can a teenager respect someone who thinks that is a good idea? They started enacting them when I was in highschool, every new idea was met with 50 new rebellions. Student ID's spawned fake ID's for every student (I still have one with the name GI Joe on it). No wearing all black rule led to in school suspension for every single AP Science student on the Columbine anniversary. We werent doing the right thing, but we were kids. At younger ages you have suspension for 'sexual harassment'-5 year old butt pinching and the like. How can 5 year olds be sexually harassed by other 5 year olds?

Throw on top of those policies things like student rights (no hitting students, treating them like little adults even when theyre 5) and you see that it just doenst work. If a 10 year old boy hits a 10 year old girl (or boy) he needs to have his butt beat. He shouldnt get detention.

Basically the students have been given the control with childrens' rights, then zero tolerance really screws them up because they get punishments that make no sense, or punishments for crimes that havent happened yet, then you just flat out arent teaching what they need or want to know. Why is that not working? How could it possibly work?


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Side note: Schools in the US are now designed for girls. Girls thrive in a classroom setting with opinion answers (English, History, little up-time), boys do better with straight right wrong (math, science, and lots of up-time with breaks and recess). As this focus changes boys rate of drop out and failing goes up every year. To combat this theyre discussing segregated (by gender classes) again. This has been tried, each time with the same result. The girls across the board do excellent. Across the board the boys do terribly-failures skyrocket. Please stop allowing our education system to cheat our sons!

Answer 10

Education begins at the home.

Teach your kids how to read, and to enjoy reading, while they are still young.

Teach your kids math at an early age.

Do not blame the state for not providing a basic education for your kids; that is your job.

If you can afford a $500,000.00 house, you can afford to send your kid to private school, or hire a tutor.

BTW, Oakland is not the norm. It has one of the highest crime rates in the country. Move across the Bay, or North past Berkley.