The Houston school district reported a citywide dropout rate of 1.5
percent.
But educators and experts 60 Minutes II checked with put Houston’s
true dropout rate somewhere between 25 and 50 percent.
"But the teachers didn’t believe it. They knew it was cooking the
books. They told me that. Parents told me that," says Kimball.
"The superintendent of schools would make the public believe it was
one school. But it is in the system, it is in all of Houston."
Those low dropout rates -- in Houston and all of Texas - were one of
the accomplishments then-Texas Gov. George Bush cited when he
campaigned to become the "Education President."
Investigators checked half of the city’s regular high schools.
They reviewed the records of nearly 5,500 students who left those
schools, and checked how the schools coded, or explained, it.
They found that almost 3,000 students should have been, but weren’t,
coded as dropouts.
The audit substantiated Kimball’s allegations.
From CBS News, 1/7/04:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/06/60II/main591676.shtml
The Texas Miracle
Jan. 7, 2004
It was called the "Texas Miracle," and you may remember it because
President Bush wanted everyone to know about it during his
presidential campaign.
It was about an approach to education that was showing amazing
results, particularly in Houston, where dropout rates plunged and test
scores soared.
Houston School Superintendent Rod Paige was given credit for the
school success, by making principals and administrators accountable
for how well their students did.
Once he was elected president, Mr. Bush named Paige as secretary of
education.
And Houston became the model for the president’s "No Child Left
Behind" education reform act.
Now, as Correspondent Dan Rather reports, it turns out that some of
those miraculous claims which Houston made were wrong.
And it all came to light when one assistant principal took a close
look at his school’s phenomenally low dropout rates -- and found that
they were just too good to be true.
"I was shocked. I said, ‘How can that be,’" says Robert Kimball, an
assistant principal at Sharpstown High School, on Houston’s West side.
His own school claimed that no students -- not a single one -- had
dropped out in 2001-2002.
But that’s not what Kimball saw:
"I had been at the high school for three years, and I had seen many,
many students, several hundred a year, go out the door. And I knew
that they were quitting. They told me they were quitting."
Most of the 1,700 students at Sharpstown High are under-privileged
immigrants -- prime candidates for dropping out.
One student was Jennys Franco Gomez.
She dropped out of Sharpstown in 2001 for all-too-familiar reasons:
she had a baby.
"My baby got sick, and I don’t have nobody to take care of my baby and
take it to the doctor," she says.
The high school reported that Jennys left to get a GED, or equivalency
diploma, which doesn’t count as a dropout.
But Jennys says she never told school officials anything of the sort.
All in all, 463 kids left Sharpstown High School that year -- for a
variety of reasons.
The school reported zero dropouts, but dozens of the students did just
that.
School officials hid that fact by classifying, or coding them as
leaving for acceptable reasons: transferring to another school, or
returning to their native country.
"That’s how you get to zero dropouts. By assigning codes that say,
‘Well, this student, you know, went to another school. He did this or
that.’ And basically, all 463 students disappeared. And the school
reported zero dropouts for the year," says Kimball.
"They were not counted as dropouts, so the school had an outstanding
record."
Sharpstown High wasn’t the only "outstanding" school.
The Houston school district reported a citywide dropout rate of 1.5
percent.
But educators and experts 60 Minutes II checked with put Houston’s
true dropout rate somewhere between 25 and 50 percent.
"But the teachers didn’t believe it. They knew it was cooking the
books. They told me that. Parents told me that," says Kimball.
"The superintendent of schools would make the public believe it was
one school. But it is in the system, it is in all of Houston."
Those low dropout rates -- in Houston and all of Texas - were one of
the accomplishments then-Texas Gov. George Bush cited when he
campaigned to become the "Education President."
At that time, Paige was running Houston’s schools, and he had
instituted a policy of holding principals accountable for how their
students did.
Principals worked under one-year contracts, and each year, the school
district set strict goals in areas like dropout rates and test scores.
Principals who met the goals got cash bonuses of up to $5,000, and
other perks.
Those who fell short were transferred, demoted or forced out.
Kimball took his findings about Sharpstown High School to CBS
affiliate KHOU-TV, which first reported the dropout scandal.
___________________________________________________________
Just another "Governor" Bush lie. You must be used to 'em by now.
Harry
.
|
