SECTION: NEWS; Mary Mitchell; Pg. 14

LENGTH: 831 words

HEADLINE: We can't let rural, urban poor keep quitting school

BYLINE: Mary Mitchell, The Chicago Sun-Times

BODY:


Time magazine calls it "Dropout Nation."

A special two-part report on Oprah Winfrey's show this week dubbed it "American Schools in Crisis."

What has both media giants sounding alarms is the 30 percent dropout rate for students in America's public high schools uncovered by scholars at the Manhattan Institute. Authored by Jay P. Greene and Marcus A. Winters, the report, titled "Leaving Boys Behind: Public High School Graduation Rates," puts our education system at a crossroad.

Looking at data for the class of 2003, among the ominous findings are these:

- Graduation rates for black students weere 55 percent compared with 78 percent for white students, 72 percent for Asian students and 53 percent for Hispanic students;

- Although there is a gender gap in graduaation rates for all races, it is particularly wide for minority students. While 59 percent of black girls graduated, only 48 percent of black boys earn a high school diploma. For Hispanic girs, the graduation rate was 58 percent compared to 49 percent for boys.

- Illinois ranks 26th in high school graduuation rates, behind Indiana (23), Michigan (14), and Ohio (10).

- Worse news yet: Desperate parents who seee sending their children to relatives in Mississippi, Arkansas and Georgia when they get in trouble will have to consider another alternative. Schools in South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Florida and Louisiana ranked at the bottom of the list. Mississippi, for instance, had a 59 percent graduation rate.

SMALL-TOWN SCHOOL HIGHLIGHTED

Instead of beating a path to an urban school to try to make sense of these abysmal graduation rates, Time instead highlighted Shelbyville High School, about 30 miles outside of Indianapolis. There, an estimated 100 kids from the entering freshman class four years ago dropped out. Almost all of the dropouts interviewed by the Time reporter said "teachers and principals treated the 'rich kids' better."

These were not voices echoing across gritty street corners. The students featured in the Time article were poor white kids, many of them from chaotic family backgrounds. Like the estimated 80 percent of Chicago Public School kids who qualify for free lunch, these students from small-town America fit the profile of kids who give up on earning a high school diploma.

The article, in the April 17 issue, cited a report from the National Center for Education Statistics that found kids from the lowest income quarter are more than six times as likely to drop out of high school as kids from the highest.

Whether by happenstance or by intent, I'm grateful Time chose to tell this story through the ideas of dropouts from a school in a small town. Because the dropout problem is usually framed as an urban blight, many of you may not realize that the education crisis is an American problem, not simply an urban one. Education experts have long agonized over the high drop-out rates in communities of color.

For instance, Hispanic leaders launched a campaign several years ago in predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods targeting the high dropout rate. And African-American activists and parents have long fought against expulsions, suspensions and disciplinary actions that tend to push borderline students out the door.

TEACH JOB SKILLS, TOO

There is merit to the argument that closing some Chicago public schools will likely boost the dropout rate even higher and legitimizes the gang culture. Students who are either in a gang or closely associated with one because of where they live are likely to quit school rather than cross gang boundaries.

And while some dropouts echoed something Mayor Daley said recently -- that they were bored with high school -- it will still take a drastic change in our thinking to fix our failing system. As laudable as the goal of sending every student to college may seem, many students are more interested in learning job skills than they are in preparing for a career.

Schools will need early literacy programs; a choice of learning environments for kids who are struggling in regular schools; early identification of at-risk students; support for vocational education, and the involvement of parents or mentors, Time magazine reported.

COLLISION COURSE WITH IMMIGRANTS

Whether dropouts are peering across a cornfield or a vacant lot, many of these students cannot visualize their place in the future.

With the intense media focus on this problem, perhaps we will be able to rally support for a new education funding model that shifts resources to schools serving poor students. According to experts, if we don't turn around our education system, instead of lifting families out of poverty we will create a permanent underclass.

Besides being immoral, that would put us on a collision course with the influx of the millions of illegal immigrants who currently are the dominant population in the low-wage job market -- the only jobs a high school dropout can possibly land.

We owe our children so much more than that.

e-mail: marym@suntimes.com

LOAD-DATE: April 13, 2006