wenBLOG

What’s 1700 into 4500? Mathematically it can be explained as 0.37777778. Or as 37.8%. In Cleveland it can also be explained as complete and utter FAILURE!

You see, in August 2003, 4500 kids started their freshman year in Cleveland’s public high schools. 1700 out of the 4500 graduated in 2007. Nationally, about one-third of all public high school students—and nearly one half of all African Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans—fail to graduate from public high school with their class.

(I recall reading an article in the PeeDee that cited these numbers, or very close to these numbers, but can’t find it on cleveland.com or google news. BTW, is there a worse online “newspaper” than cleveland.com? Anyone recall this article?)

Whatever the “exact” numbers, it’s obvious to anyone with a pulse that Cleveland’s public schools are failing us. I use “us” deliberately. You don’t have to be a resident of Cleveland to be affected. If you’re a taxpayer in Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, the State of Ohio, or anywhere in the US, it affects you. Here’s how:

• Dropouts are more likely than high school graduates to be unemployed, in poor health, living in poverty, on public assistance, and single parents with children who drop out of high school

• Dropouts were more than twice as likely as high school graduates to slip into poverty in a single year and three times more likely than college graduates to be unemployed in 2004

• Dropouts are more than eight times as likely to be in jail or prison as high school graduates

• Dropouts are four times less likely to volunteer than college graduates, twice less likely to vote or participate in community projects, and represent only 3 percent of actively engaged citizens in the U.S. today

• The government would reap $45 billion in extra tax revenues and reduced costs in public health, crime, and welfare payments if the number of high school dropouts among 20-year olds in the U.S. today, which numbers more than 700,000 individuals, were cut in half

Source

As you can see, high school dropouts are a huge drain on society. Duh! And Cleveland is producing more than its fair share of them.

How do we solve this? I don’t know, but I do know whom should share the brunt of the blame.

A couple of months ago I was downtown near Key Tower and noticed a mini-parade across the mall. I moseyed over to see what was going on and discovered it was a showcase for some of the public school’s extracurricular groups: a circus performing group with unicycles, jugglers and tumblers, a salsa band, a drum line band, a dance troupe and so on.

A small group of about 15 teachers arrived carrying placards demanding more $$ for the schools–how original. I sat back and observed all the goings-on for a bit, but when the gaggle of teachers walked toward me I approached them to see what was what. I spoke to nice lady who was probably in here 50s and I asked her, “You really think money is going to solve the problems?” She looked at me a bit perturbed and I looked back and gave her my best older-lady melting smile (it’s patented from my jury trial days) and said, “come on now [meaning- don’t BS me lady].” Her face relaxed and she leaned in closer and whispered in my ear, “it’s the parents.”

Ahh, there it is. It can’t be said in polite conversation, it must be whispered. Certainly can’t print a placard that says, “Hey morons, take some responsibility for your children!” Wouldn’t be polite. We don’t want to offend anyone. That would be bad. Better to blame the teachers, blame the unions, blame lack of money, blame the bloated school administration, blame the Mayor, blame City Council, blame lead paint, etc. Meanwhile the city is going to hell.

Not convinced it’s the parents? OK, recently I was in my neighborhood coffee shop and I struck up a conversation with a former Cleveland public school teacher. Let’s call him Bob. Knowing a bit about the stresses associated with teaching in Cleveland, and the ultimate futility that often sets in with teachers, I asked him, “So Bob, when you first started teaching were you gun ho to change the world?”

“Oh most definitely,” he said.

I replied, “how long did that last?”

“About three months,” he said with a chuckle.

Bob told me a story to illustrate his frustration. A young man was transferred into his class (it was either fifth or sixth grade—I cant remember) because he was causing troubles in another classroom. This boy was not doing well in school. He was acting out, being disrespectful and getting horrible grades. It turns out the boy was very intelligent and was just bored. He wasn’t being challenged in the other class and therefore was acting out, as often happens. Bob recognized this and challenged the boy. Soon, the boy’s schoolwork was stellar and the behavior problems were gone.

Bob was pleased; the boy was pleased. Bob naturally thought the boy’s mother would be pleased to hear about her son’s great work at school so he called her. This is how Bob recalls the conversation after he introduced himself on the phone to the mother:

“This is his teacher?!? What he do? He in trouble?,” the mother snapped.

“No, no, not at all,” Bob replied. “I just wanted to tell you what a great job your son was doing. I thought you’d like to hear that he’s doing well and his grades are vastly improved.”

“What? He not in trouble? Why you calling me?!?”

“As I said, to let you know he’s doing well.”

“He not in trouble?”

“No. He’s doing very well, in fact –“

“So why you calling then if he didn’t do nothing bad?!? I don’t want you calling me again–you hear?” CLICK!

She was really angry and hung up the phone on him. She just couldn’t understand why he would be calling to praise her child. It was completely foreign to her.

I’ve heard similar stories from other teachers about lack of parental involvement and support. On the flipside, teachers can’t discipline their students because the parents often side with the child and feel the teacher is being unfair. Oh, also there’s a fear of lawsuits if a teacher disciplines a student—damn lawyers! Bottom line: it’s not an environment conducive to learning no matter how motivated the teachers.

So, we’re back to the original question: how do we solve this? Well, that will call for some outside-the-box thinking. Here’s a place where we can certainly point much of the blame on the teachers’ unions and the various government entities running the schools.

Here’s an idea, force the parents to participate. The KIPP schools, a charter school org that runs middle schools and high schools throughout the country, requires parents to pledge to the following:

PARENTS’/GUARDIANS’ COMMITMENT

• We will make sure our child arrives every day by 7:30 A.M. (Monday – Friday), or boards a bus at the scheduled time.
• We will make arrangements for our child to remain at KIPP until 5:00 P.M. (Monday – Thursday) and 3:00 P.M. on Friday
• We will make arrangements for our child to come to KIPP on appropriate Saturdays at 9:00 A.M. and remain until 1:05 P.M.
• We will ensure that our child attends KIPP summer school.
• We will always help our child in the best way we know how, and we will do whatever it takes for him/her to learn. This also means that we will check our child’s homework every night, let him call the teacher if there is a problem with homework, and try to read with him/her every night.
• We will always make ourselves available to support our child’s education at KIPP TECH VALLEY. This also means that if our child is going to miss school, we will notify the teacher as soon as possible, and we will read carefully all the papers that the school sends home to us.
• We will allow our children to go on KIPP field trips.
• We will make sure our child follows the KIPP dress code.
• We understand that our child must follow the KIPP rules in order to protect the safety, interests, and rights of all individuals in the classroom. We, not the school, are responsible for the behavior and actions of our child.
• We will always protect the safety, interests and rights of all individuals in the classroom.
• Failure to adhere to these commitments can cause my child to lose various KIPP privileges.

Pretty simple. Most of the rules are basic common sense and in a simpler world they wouldn’t be necessary. But we don’t live in that simpler world. What if Eugene Sanders, CEO of the schools, made a pledge such as this mandatory? Would it help?

Also, look at some of the other inivitiatives taken at KIPP schools and St. Martin dePorres High School right here in Cleveland such as offering classes to parents in the evenings and weekends, longer school days, longer school weeks and longer school years. What!? Do we really need the school year in the city of Cleveland to follow the traditional school schedule that was designed for an agrarian society? I don’t think so.

Let’s get out of the box and fix the schools.