Report Card: Addressing Knox County Schools dropout rates

Every year in this country, 1.2 million students drop out of school. That number, provided by the Alliance for Excellent Education, equates to 7,000 students walking away from an education every single school day and only 71 percent of students graduating from high school with their classes in four years. And educators are scrambling to find out why.

Even though Knox County Schools have been seeing better retention rates in the last few years, Superintendent James P. McIntyre, Jr., and his staff are implementing a whole new approach to stemming the classroom exodus by implementing a five-year strategic plan called "Excellence for All Children."

John Beckett, Supervisor of Research and Evaluation at the Knox County School Board, estimates the county's 2008 dropout rate at 15.7 percent as compared to the national average of 20 to 30 percent but cautions that wide variations exist between state-reported, federally-reported and independently-reported rates. For example, The Alliance for Excellent Education shows an 11 percent gap in dropout rates between state and independent sources, with state-reported numbers for No Child Left Behind at 81 percent; U.S. Department of Education at 71 percent; and Education Week at 70 percent.

The cohort dropout rate compares the number of graduating seniors with the number of freshmen four years earlier. Out of a possible 4,051 Knox County high school students, 3,413 graduated with their classes and 638 were members of other cohort groups that are counted as dropouts-special education students, late graduates who finished in summer school, GED students, and those who received Certificates of Attendance.

Knox County School Board Chief of Staff Russ Oakes agrees that dropout numbers are often flawed by cohorts that account for 16.3 percent of students in Knox County like home-schooled children who do not even figure in graduation statistics because they are "not visible."

Even though the student who achieves a GED is still viewed as a dropout, Juvenile Court Judge Tim Irwin says he would still like that student to "get a GED, a driver's license, and a job. With those three he would at least have a pretty good chance of making it. The majority of kids not in school are allowed not to go to school by their parents. If we can get them back in school, then the schools can do their job to teach them, to find out if there are learning disabilities and find out why they're not in school to begin with." The judge also advocates giving waivers to 17-year-olds who know they'll never go back to school so that they can go ahead and earn their GEDs and get on with their lives. Dropouts say they leave school because of problems at home, disinterest, boredom, lack of parental support, or inability to keep up with their classmates. Whatever their reasons, the repercussions are enormous. Not only does the affected student suffer financially and socially, but each dropout becomes a burden for society. In Tennessee, dropouts from the class of 2008 alone will cost the state almost 7.3 billion in lost wages over their lifetimes, and their ensuing dependence on the state means that they are far more likely than their graduating class members to spend their lives periodically unemployed, cycling in and out of the prison system, or on government assistance.

The U.S. Bureau of the Census cites that in 2006, the average high school dropout earned $17,299, which is $9,634 less than the income for a graduate with a diploma and $35,372 less than a graduate with a bachelor's degree. Another staggering statistic is that had the students who dropped out of the class of 2007 remained in school and graduated, the nation's economy would have experienced an additional $329 billion in incomes over their lifetimes through higher levels of worker productivity, higher wages and increased purchasing power. In Tennessee alone, total lifetime additional income for the 22,016 dropouts who started out with the class of 2007 would have been nearly $6 billion.

One dropout victim is Tammy Hill, who left school when she was in the eighth grade and just recently, at 41, decided to get off welfare and earn her GED. Her father, a West Virginia coal miner who has never learned to read, constantly told her she would never amount to anything. Then she married a man who echoed the same destructive sentiments. When Tammy turned to drugs, her husband left with their four children, whom she has not seen in five years. But when she made the decision to change her life by earning a GED, her self-esteem sky-rocketed. She credits her pastor and her GED instructor, Becka Toppins, for encouraging her to change her life. After she earns her diploma in September, she is scheduled to begin working with disabled patients at the Sunrise Community, where, at last, she will become a contributing member of society.

The National Bureau of Economic Research Reporter labels the high school graduation rate a "barometer of the health of American society and the skill level of its future workforce." Consequently, dropout numbers also seriously affect America's competition in the Free World. So it is not encouraging that in a current study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's 30 free-market countries, American 15-year-olds ranked 21st in science and 25th in math.

So how can we fix it? We ask questions. And Superintendent McIntyre, who was awarded the Broad Prize in Urban Education during his previous tenure as Chief Operating Officer for Boston Schools, is a man who is good at asking questions. For example, he queries, how do we take what's documented and apply it to everyday work? How do we keep students engaged? How can we focus on high standards and improved instruction and foster student-teacher relationships?

As part of his strategic five-year plan, McIntyre says, "I have spoken with hundreds of students, parents, teachers, principals, school system staff members, community leaders, and business leaders. I have examined data and reports on many aspects of our performance, and I have consulted with leaders in the education field from around the country. I have had detailed discussions with Board of Education members and hosted two community forums focused on the future of the Knox County Schools. I have been deliberate about listening to and learning from the people of Knox County, and I have made it a priority to visit more than half our schools this fall [2008]."

Recent data shows that 67 of the 86 schools in the countywide system either showed adequate yearly progress for 2009 or made the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) benchmarks. In addition, 41 of the county's 49 elementary schools and seven of the 14 middle schools are meeting NCLB benchmarks. But the disappointing news is that only four of the county's 13 high schools are in good standing-Bearden, Farragut, Hardin Valley Academy, and Powell. Again, school administrators are attacking the problem head on. Becky Ashe, Science Supervisor and Interim Director of Curriculum, pins it down: "We've gone past the Information Age. . . You can look up anything you want from your cell phone. Our teachers are more concerned with answering the question students have been asking forever, ÔWhere am I going to use this?' Everything has an eye toward application."

Implementation of these changes means that social studies will now require a half-credit of personal finance, and English will emphasize communication-a move, says Ashe, that will take grammar out of a vacuum and pair it with oral and written applications. In addition, the state standard for high school mathematics will require four years of classes, a change Knox County made two years ago. Algebraic concepts will be introduced before the 8th grade, and science must include one biology credit and one chemistry or physics credit.

Dr. McIntyre lists three major changes in the schools this year which are meant to give students more skills for success. First, there will be Advisories, in which a small group of students meets with adult leadership in a loosely structured setting. Secondly, small learning communities will be developed to foster relationships between teachers and students. Third, the administration is moving toward individual learning plans for each student to give them a sense of their progress and to develop a sequence of service and support.

"Transitions are very crucial for students," says McIntyre. The first big step is from grammar school to junior high, and the second is from junior high to high school. "If a student gets to high school and hasn't met the necessary standards or hasn't accumulated enough credits for graduation," he says, "there is a much greater chance of his dropping out of school."

Reading is another important element of success. A new program called "Language!" is intended to bring lagging students up to grade level. "Success in school comes largely through reading," says the superintendent, "and 25 percent of students enter high school almost two years behind in their reading levels."

There are social problems to be dealt with as well. "We can mitigate the number of dropouts when teachers develop good relationships with students," says McIntyre. "If a student has a relationship with a caring adult, he is much more likely to stay in school. The report card should become the Ôsuccess card,' and graduation coaches in a number of county schools can intervene when it appears that a student is going off track." He also cites what he calls the Early Warning System, where low scores on precursors to the ACT test identify students who are at risk for dropping out.

What about parents' complaints that teachers are "teaching to the test" when competency tests roll around each year? "It's really important," the superintendent emphasizes, "to understand that we have expectations. We shouldn't be teaching to "the test" but to "the standards we expect our students to meet."

To fix fractured methods of evaluating student performance, Tennessee joined the American Diploma Project (ADP), which seeks to standardize statewide definitions of achievement and ensure that students perform at or above the national mean. And to comply with the Tennessee Diploma Project as well, Knox County students will be assessed according to the four areas covered in ACT testing: mathematics, English, science, and social studies. With a generation of students who have grown up with cell phones, iPods, and computers, educators need to approach teaching in a new way. "I am a big proponent of using what kids gravitate to naturally as teaching tools," says Becky Ashe. "The fact that these technologies have made our students vast consumers of knowledge is where the teaching should begin. Their technological literacy makes them "ripe ground" for planting the ideas of being critical thinkers, whether they know it or not, and the technology has given them the autonomy to learn about anything they can figure out how to Google. Our job as educators is to show them how to be discerning consumers of information, how to critically look at a web site or other media and decide if the content is "trustworthy" or not. This, in a way, does prepare them for learning how to apply knowledge better because they are starting with what they think are facts. We can use opposing "facts" on a single subject to show them how to analyze and what criteria make one set of information more reliable than another. That is the best application our teachers can provide for students. No matter where their life paths take them, they will need the ability to discern truth from propaganda."

What are teachers' roles in solving this dilemma? In Knox County, teachers are fully involved in improving education and committed to reducing dropout rates. Although Tennessee teaching salaries rose 4.2 percent from 2004-2005, a beginning teacher with a Bachelor's Degree earns, on average, $28,365; with a Master's Degree, $31,545; and with a Doctoral Degree, $38,025. Their jobs don't end at 3 p.m. or in summer. Their involvement in upgrading student performance this past summer demonstrates their dedication to the county's new strategic plan as they logged in thousands of hours preparing for the changes in the state curriculum. "Our content supervisors have been aware of the changes for quite some time," says Ashe, "and in anticipation had set up a whole summer's worth of opportunities for teachers to get new ideas-not about scrapping everything they do and changing, but about how to build on what they already do to go deeper." Thus, from May 27 through August 7, 2009, Knox County teachers racked up a total of 44,179 hours in unscheduled in-service and 14, 387 in re-certification. Those sessions identified under "general" for the most part focused on general curriculum trends, like inquiry teaching, formative assessment, research on learning, and building collaborative cultures in schools. "We feel confident our teachers are facing students with renewed energy and ideas for taking them farther than they've gone before," says Ashe, "with an eye on emphasizing how to use their knowledge in real-world situations. If we can stimulate kids' interest with application of their learning in a context in which they can see the real-world connection and do it using the technology they use every hour they are away from school, we will have gone a long way towards reducing that "boredom" and disconnect so many kids see between school and their futures."

Knox County's efforts are beginning to show results. In March of 2009 researchers at Johns Hopkins University reported that Tennessee's graduation rate rose more than any other state's between 2002 and 2006-from 61 percent to 72 percent-while the national graduation rate remained flat at about 75 percent. "From a management aspect," says McIntyre, "you need to focus on a pathway to success. We need to keep up with students' progress and micro-manage that progress, so that the report card becomes the "success card."

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