NoDropouts.org published an article this week entitled "Why we can't measure dropout recovery students the same way as we measure others." The post was in response to data presented to the Duval County School Board in Florida. The school board responded to district data on credit completion of the district's dropout retrieval programs. The programs were criticized for the low number of credits earned by its students. The NoDropouts.org article illuminates issues when it comes to evaluating dropout retrieval.
From the article: "Dropout recovery programs serve students who have already left school once before. Often these students have come and gone multiple times. Research tells us these students are commonly years behind in credit attainment, and even further behind in actual educational attainment.
"In most cases, they’re still facing the issues that pushed them out of school in the first place — and in many cases those obstacles have only increased in the time they’ve been away from school. "
The presentation of such skewed data in Duval County is further evidence of the relevance of alternative accountability and the need to create more appropriate methodologies to evaluate the success of schools focused on serving overage and undercredited students.
Read "Why we can't measure dropout recovery students the same way as we measure others."
From the article: "Dropout recovery programs serve students who have already left school once before. Often these students have come and gone multiple times. Research tells us these students are commonly years behind in credit attainment, and even further behind in actual educational attainment.
"In most cases, they’re still facing the issues that pushed them out of school in the first place — and in many cases those obstacles have only increased in the time they’ve been away from school. "
The presentation of such skewed data in Duval County is further evidence of the relevance of alternative accountability and the need to create more appropriate methodologies to evaluate the success of schools focused on serving overage and undercredited students.
Read "Why we can't measure dropout recovery students the same way as we measure others."