Returning home after three tours of duty in Afghanistan, Derek Blumke was eager to return to college. But the Air Force veteran felt unwelcome at the University of Michigan as he tried alone to manage the transition from warrior to student. During one of his…
Original post by David Mercer
The achievement gap that plagues our schools is a persistent and complex problem. But to solve that problem, we first need to focus on what we call the “opportunity gap.” Here in the Bay Area, high schools with some of the highest test scores in the nation…
Original post by peter@bgcp.org (Peter Fortenbaugh)
Bay Area educators who have wrestled with the high school dropout problem for years say they are relieved to have accurate numbers at last, even if the information is depressing. “You can’t fix the problem if you don’t know what it is,” said Alison McDonald,…
Original post by nasimov@sfchronicle.com (Nanette Asimov)
It’s a question long debated and dodged - how bad is California’s high school dropout rate? At long last, the state has a credible number, and it’s a dismal one. One in 4 students is walking away into a future of low-paying jobs, limited careers and the…
Original post by Olivia Barker
California’s first true count of high school dropouts shows that one in four kids quit school last year - 127,292 - which is far more than state educators estimated before they began using a new student-tracking system. The statewide 24-percent dropout rate…
Original post by nasimov@sfchronicle.com (Nanette Asimov)
Nearly 1 in 4 California students will drop out during high school, state educators said Wednesday, basing their prediction on what they said is the most accurate information about student attendance they’ve ever collected. Using a new student-tracking…
Original post by nasimov@sfchronicle.com (Nanette Asimov)
The University of California regents questioned a faculty proposal Wednesday to change student eligibility for admission to the system’s nine undergraduate campuses, significantly reducing the number who are guaranteed a seat. Several regents, including new…
Original post by csturrock@sfchronicle.com (Carrie Sturrock)
A high-profile push by business groups to double the number of U.S. bachelor’s degrees awarded in science, math and engineering by 2015 is falling way behind target, a new report says. In 2005, 15 prominent business groups warned that a lack of expert workers…
Original post by Justin Pope
It isn’t absurd enough that we test high school students with a High School Exit Exam that is pretty much on a par with the California Basic Educational Skills Test (CBEST) required of teachers, but now we are all congratulating ourselves with a decision to…
Original post by Claudia Ayers
One thing both sides of the math-wars debate should agree on is this: Educators can set high standards, but the higher standards only help students if the students have a base of knowledge from which they can rise. In 1997, when the state board of education…
Original post by Olivia Barker