A Tale of Two Dropouts

In my history as a teacher, principal and now curriculum director, I have come across many students who were unsuccessful on standardized tests. Those students received additional time and support from outstanding teachers, but they continued to be unsuccessful on standardized tests. In Texas, standardized tests are pretty important, as you can't graduate from high school unless you're successful on standardized tests.  That's why I'm sad to say that I have seen many students become dropouts simply because they could not pass a standardized test.

Today I'd like to tell you about two students that I worked closely with in my career, Adriana and Joseph (not their real names but they are real students). Joseph was a student from a two-parent middle class family with lots of support to get through life, however Joseph did not graduate from high school. It wasn't because of his failure to pass classes, which were a challenge.  It wasn't because Joseph was a lazy or apathetic kid.  Joseph failed to graduate because he failed to pass 1 of the 4 standardized tests. 

Adriana was a great student in middle school and high school, yet she was never able to pass a standardized test. She had language issues, and learning academics was a challenge for her.  Unlike Joseph, Adriana came from a single-parent home where her mother did not speak English. She was on free lunch, and she had to be home every day to take care of her brothers and sisters while her mother worked her second job.  While her background was completely different from Joseph, her high school result was exactly the same. She failed to graduate from high school because she failed to pass two of four standardized tests. 

Two Dropouts - Two Different Results

While these two students failed to graduate, what happened after that is the real difference.  Joseph's parents poured lots of resources and support into his education that helped him earn his GED,  Additionally, Joseph's parents enrolled him into a technical school where he earned his degree as a welder, where he now has a welding job making good money.

For Adrianna the result wasn't quite the same.  I saw Adrianna this morning at a fast food restaurant where she served me my breakfast.  When I asked her about school, she told me she was not in school because she didn't have time to go get her GED.  In short she didn't have the external resources to recover from her failure to graduate like Joseph did, and in her 20's, the chance of her going back to school decreases every day.

How do we Eradicate Poverty?

Socioeconomic status plays and has always played a massive role in education, but it has an even bigger impact on a dropout's efforts to recover from the devastating failure of not earning a diploma.  At its core, a complete public education is the difference between poverty and avoiding it. 

  Educators and legislators must work together to generate many options for students to demonstrate their readiness to graduate from high school and preparation for college and career. Not every student will be successful on a standardized test; therefore, they must have other options to demonstrate college and career readiness. 

The great news is that there is legislation in Texas right now to help students that struggle with standardized tests. Senate Bill 149 is under discussion right now, and it would allow schools greater flexibility in helping students demonstrate that mastery.    My hope is that legislators will continue to listen to educators.   They must understand that students of poverty will not return to get their diploma once that opportunity has been missed.

All students are influenced by their environment, and students of poverty who fail to graduate have a greater chance of being influenced by their environment to never return to school.  Once that decision has been made, a dropout will have a better chance of falling into the pipeline to imprisonment than earning a diploma.  We will never be able to reduce poverty with legislation.  The only way that we will ever eradicate the cycle of poverty is to educate our way out of it.  Legislators must pass legislation that gives schools greater flexibility to help all students earn a diploma that will serve as a springboard into a college and career future. 

Why the A-F Rating System will Fail Texas Kids

The A-F grading discussion is moving full steam ahead in the Texas Senate, and it looks like the leaders in the Senate are committed to adopting a flawed accountability system.  What I hope to communicate in this post are some questions that all educators, parents and communities should ask the legislators who we elected to improve schools.  After reading all of the proposed changes, the thought that continues to come to my mind is this.

I just don't get it.

Question 'A'

Why are You Tying Accountability to a Test that You don't Believe In?

Standardized testing has run its course, or at least that's what many legislators touted when running for office.  It is widely believed that standardized testing is flawed, and that there is too much emphasis on one single test.  Lt. Governor, Dan Patrick was quoted in the Dallas Morning News (Click Here) this past October saying,

“I’m getting to the point where I’m losing total confidence in our state testing because we’re getting students with A’s and B’s … who can’t pass the Algebra 1 test, for example.”   

An additional point in the same article was shared by our new governor, Greg Abbott, when he was running for office.   His quote on testing as a valid measure for learning was as follows.


 “I think it’s fair to say the whole process needs to be re-evaluated,” he said. “We may have a broken thermometer, the STAAR test, that is no longer doing a good job of measuring.”  

If this is the prevailing rhetoric in Austin, then I don't understand why you would want an accountability system that labels and furthermore punishes schools for failing to perform on a test (STAAR) that everyone including the top 2 leaders in the state are sick of.


In fact, over 10,000 seniors may not graduate this year because they haven't passed 1 or more STAAR End of Course tests required for graduation.  To fix this problem, Senate Bill 149 (a good thing) is on the floor right now to allow schools to give students multiple ways to demonstrate that they have met the necessary criteria to graduate.  While this bill is a victory for kids as well as schools, the bill is essentially affirming that it is wrong to use a flawed test to base major decisions about a school's performance.

Question 'B'

Are you Leading Texas or Following other States?

With so much at stake and so many people calling for an overhaul of the Texas accountability system, why are you looking to imitate several states who have tried and failed at implementing an A-F school rating system?  There is much evidence that shows that several states have failed at providing clarity about school performance using an A-F rating system.  (If there is a state that has successfully helped all schools improve and more kids graduate using an A-F rating system, please tell me where that state is because I honestly can't find one.)

If you want to know the results that will come from labeling schools on an A-F scale, please see Virginia, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Oklahoma again, and Florida.  From what I have found, I only see frustration and confusion coming from a system that you say is intended to be less confusing.  The article that concerned me the most was "More Schools Received an F than Last Year".

I know that schools in other states are doing a great job educating kids because I believe schools, teachers and leaders in those states are working hard to educate kids.  In fact, the new Oklahoma state superintendent believes this also, as she has suspended the A-F rating system until 2016 while the "flaws" in the system are being worked out.   After reading the articles, I just don't see how labeling more schools with an 'F' each year is going to build people's confidence in schools.

Next, why are you so committed to over-evaluating all campuses on an A-F system when you haven't even proven that evaluating our districts using the A-F system is effective?  We heard legislators politicize that they disagree with over-testing, bureaucratic redtape and over-regulation by the federal government, yet you are designing a testing and accountability system that exceeds what our federal government is doing.

Our current state testing and accountability system:

• Has more total indicators to gauge school performance than the federal government,
• Has 4 Indexes (Indices) that measure one test in four different ways,
• Ties graduation directly to passing all 5 STAAR EOC tests (unless SB 149 passes),
• Requires more standardized tests (grades 3-12) to be given ) than the federal government (7 more tests.

The sad truth is this.  An A-F system is nothing more than a flashback to our former accountability system under TAKS (2002-2011) where schools were labeled as Exemplary, Recognized, Acceptable and Unacceptable, and these labels were based predominantly on one measure (standardized tests).  This old system was so antiquated and so negatively opposed by virtually everyone in the state that it was done away with.  I just don't see how returning to a failed system from last decade is going to help all schools guarantee learning for all kids in this decade.

Question 'C' 

Can We please have a New Vision for Accountability?

You can weigh yourself as much as you want, but there are a lot of other ways to determine if you are in good health.  Your weight is just one factor. The same is true of gauging the health of schools.  Keeping that in mind, please take a look at the TASA Visioning Document which was created by a group of highly insightful and committed Texas superintendents and education leaders.  I would encourage you to look at Article IV on page 24 which deals exclusively with accountability.  I really think they hit the nail on the head when they defined meaningful accountability in this way.

• Accountability systems are guided by the fact that to attach any matter highly valued by students, teachers, school leaders, or schools/districts to any single measure such as a standardized test, corrupts the test and the integrity of what it measures as well as the accountability it was intended to provide.

• Labels for schools and particularly those that use the lowest performing unit as the basis for a punitive label should be avoided. There is a distinction between identifying performance gaps and labeling. Identification of performance gaps enables schools to move forward in designing different instructional strategies or approaches to help students achieve the learning desired.

Can you please get input from leaders of school districts who live to make a difference in the lives of kids?  I am confident that you will get a much better accountability system that will truly tell you and more importantly parents how schools are really performing.

Question 'D'

Do Schools Need More Pressure?

The rhetoric implicates that schools are not improving fast enough; therefore, they need more pressure and shorter timelines to demonstrate improvement on a test that has basically flatlined in performance for the last 3 years.  I don't know what schools you have visited, but I don't know of a school in Texas that has too little pressure placed upon it.  By trying to meet the passing requirements, exceeding the growth measures and competing in their campus comparison groups, Texas schools, leaders, teachers and students are under more pressure to improve than I have ever seen in my career.  I agree that all schools must be committed to guaranteeing learning for all kids.  I just don't get how more pressure to avoid punitive measures will get the job done.

Question 'F'

Are Schools Doing a Good Job?

I, like thousands of Americans, believe we must continue to strive for academic excellence, and I believe that until every student is equipped with an education that successfully prepares them for college and career, we must continue to improve.  I think it is important to point out that Texas has some great things happening and some areas where we must improve.  Here are a few facts that I pulled from TAPR state reports from 2014, the TEA website and ACT website.

• Texas had the 2nd highest graduation rate in the nation this year at 88%.  It is higher than the national average by 7%.  That was done without an A-F rating system.
• ACT Participation and Performance rates are the highest in the last 5 years. (see page 7)  All  subgroups have also increased in participation and performance over the last 5 years.  While the growth is small in performance, participation has grown tremendously.
• 57% of Texas high school graduates enrolled in an IHE (Institution of Higher Education) last year.   
• 70% of Texas graduates enrolled in an IHE successfully completed the first year of college without remediation.
• 31% of Texas high school students took and passed college courses as high school students (dual credit) in 2012.  This number is increasing every year due to House Bill 5.  In other words, 1/3 of Texas high school kids earned college credit before they graduated from high school.
• 22% of Texas students took AP tests in 2012 and half of them earned college credit. (That's even more college credit earned by high school students)
• College and technical school enrollment has increased steadily over the last 3 years.

While Texas needs to improve in ACT and SAT performance, as well as college enrollment, more students are being prepared for college every year.  Of course, some kids need remediation when they get there, but more kids are getting there, and that's a good thing.  We have room to grow, but we are also growing.

Texas Schools are Improving

I don't know about you, but I think all Texas schools are making improvements.  I'm not basing this solely on test scores because a school's story is told by more factors than what you find on a test score.   A school's story includes what they are doing in the areas of college preparation, career and technical education, fine arts, UIL academics, athletics, and other innovative programs that will never be included in an A-F rating system.  

Are some schools failing?  Yes, and there should be plans for them to respond quickly and efficiently.  Are some schools excelling?  Yes, and there should be a culture where exceptional schools share their successful strategies to help neighboring schools improve.  An A-F rating system that creates winners and losers will do nothing but recreate a culture of competition between campuses instead of uniting districts in the spirit of collaboration and most importantly educating all kids.   Texas is better than that, and if we believe we're in the business of helping all kids improve and succeed, then we should have legislation that helps all schools improve and succeed as well.


Share your thoughts, and if you believe in your school,  share this with a friend.

Better yet, call your senator and representative and tell them that Texas schools and kids deserve something better than an A-F accountability system. 

 Here's a link to their directory

Save Texas Seniors

One in 10 Texas Seniors may not graduate this year due to standardized testing.

Yes, 1 in 10.  Below is information that I received from TASA, Texas Association of School Administrators yesterday that outlines a bill in the Texas Senate that would give schools flexibility in the same way that they give schools flexibility with students in grades 5 and 8 who fail to meet the SSI (Student Success Initiative) requirements for promotion to the next grade.

Right now, Texas touts having the 2nd highest graduation rate in the nation at 88%.  If these seniors do not get some relief to the stringent testing requirements under STAAR EOC, I am certain that the Texas' graduation rate will drop significantly.   The chances of them passing STAAR EOC after graduation drop significantly because many of these students will choose not to return to school to get the remediation for this test.   While I do believe that all students must demonstrate proficiency to graduate, I believe that students must have multiple options to demonstrate that mastery, which is why I firmly support Senate Bill (SB) 149.


Here is what Senate Bill 149 would do to provide schools options to help all students graduate.

From TASA Communication 

SB 149 would allow school districts and charter schools to create individual graduation committees for students to determine whether a student qualifies to graduate despite failing to pass one or more EOCs. The committee is modeled after Grade Placement Committees in grades 5 and 8.

The Individual Graduation Committee (IGC) would include the following:

• principal or the principal’s designee
• teacher of the course in which the student failed the EOC
• student’s school counselor
• student’s parent or person standing in parental relation to the student, or a designated advocate, if applicable

Additional talking points for SB 149 include:

• Students must still pass all courses required for graduation.
• The vote for allowing the student to graduate must be unanimous.
• The IGC may require additional measures for the student to graduate, including extra remediation and completion of projects or portfolios in the subject area in which the student failed the EOC.
• The IGC is required to consider the following:
• teacher recommendations
• student’s grades in related courses
• student’s score on the EOC
• student performance on the any additional measures required by the IGC
• number of remedial hours completed
• student’s attendance
• student’s performance on TSI
• completion of dual credit courses, pre-AP, AP, IB courses
• student’s rating of “advanced high” on TELPAS
• student’s score of 50 or greater on a CLEP exam
• CTE certification
• any other academic information designated for consideration by the school board

TASA, other administrative organizations, TASB, and principal and teacher organizations all expressed support for SB 149 during Thursday’s hearing.

PLEASE CONTACT YOUR SENATOR TODAY AND ASK THEM TO SUPPORT SB 149.

Will School Accountability ever move into the 21st Century???

In 8th grade, I failed my first class ever.  I made a 68.48 in language arts.  Yes, .48. I failed by .02 of a point!  I did the math. I argued with the teacher and pleaded my case, but there was no changing her mind.  The grade was final, and there was nothing I could do about it.  It was the worst feeling ever knowing that I was officially a failure, but what made it worse was knowing that I didn't fail because of English. I failed because of my behavior.

My initial response was to blame the teacher for her inflexiblity, but I couldn't.  Her decision was one that was grounded in systemic approval and acceptance.  Calculating behavior and other non-learning factors into a student's grade was not only acceptable, it was the grading system.  What I learned was this; a grade really wasn't a reflection of learning; it was a combination of learning, compliance and other subjective factors.

Well, if I thought the embarrassment of my grade was bad, I had no idea just how terrible the consequences of my grade were going to be.  I was a member of the National Junior Honor Society.  Not any more.  I made the All-Region band, but now I was out.  Because I "failed", I was now a member of the Texas "No Pass-No Play" club.  I had earned a new distinction, and it wasn't one that I was proud of.

So What's in a Grade?

Well, if you've been in education for any amount of time as a teacher, student or parent, you've asked this question at least once. "How did you come up with that grade?"  Whether it was a failing grade, an 89 or a 79, frustration or confusion has arisen when trying to determine any grading policy. 

Well there's lots of ways to come up with a grade, but the best definition of a grade was written way back in 1957. 

Source:  Mike Mattos

So Let's Grade Schools on a 20th Century Scale

Well it only makes sense to give schools a grade. After all, we give kids a grade, right?  The system was good enough for us when we went to school, and we have to have some way to communicate how good of a job that schools are doing.  But before we slap a rating on schools, I would like to analyze current grading systems and the consequences and confusion that follows. 

1.  Met or Didn't Met Expectations

This is such an arbitrary system, and it's hard to understand why one school met expectations while another one didn't.  There are so many factors that contribute to the rating, and a simple notation of meeting or not meeting the mark confuses more than it conveys.   For example, schools in need of improvement often receive the label due to one of a multitude of indicators that were negatively affected by a few students. This overall designation of deficiency gives the community at-large the impression that the entire school is failing. 

2. A-F Rating System

How do you determine who gets an A and who gets a B?  What's the difference between a D & an F?  At the end of the day, if your school doesn't make the A, you're not good enough. At least that's what the grade will communicate to stakeholders when they read the score on the front page of the paper. The problem with this system is that a letter grade doesn't tell the whole story, and it doesn't communicate the factors that comprise the grade. Furthermore, the grade tells the community that your school is awesome, acceptable or awful. 

Fixed Minded Accountability  is so 20th Century, Let's  Measure Schools in the 21st Century

If learning is about the growth of an individual student, then let's have a system that gauges a school's growth.  The problem with fixed accountabilty systems is that the ratings don't show progress.  We preach the importance of learning as a  process over time.  We need an accountability system that affirms the performance of a school and measures the school's growth.

Here is one way that we could use to assign a grade based on 2 factors:  a school's growth in helping more kids learn at higher levels and a school's performance compared to its peers.

School Accountability Focused on Growth

Growth		Performance
+	The school made sufficient growth from last year in helping all kids learn.	+	The school's performance is above the average performance of like schools.
O	The school maintained it's current progress from last year in helping all kids learn.	O	The school's performance is on target with the average performance of like schools.
-	The school declined from it's performance last year.	-	The school's performance is below the average performance of like schools.

A rating system like this would give stakeholders a good perspective on a school's overall academic health.  Is the school improving and is the school performing above similar schools?  In this table, if a school is declining and performing below its peer schools, you can easily tell that significant change needs to be made.  If a school is performing below the average performance of its peers but is growing, you can also tell that systems are working and need more time to bring the school up to acceptable levels of performance.  The idea is this.  A school shouldn't be judged on a single set of data based on a single year, but the school can be more fairly evaluated when it's performance is evaluated over time.  After all, isn't that what great teachers do for kids.

What are your thoughts?

Vouching for Public Education

State legislatures have more impact on education than any form of government.  As an educator in Texas, I am currently experiencing this impact firsthand. Let me explain.  The Texas Legislature is now in session, and public education is once again a major issue in this biennium.  Since public school budgets were slashed six years ago and slightly improved 4 years ago, school finance is once again a major topic as it should be.  There is no doubt that schools need additional funding to address the higher academic expectations and the huge increases in enrollment that every public school faces.

But there is another issue gaining steam that will once again take money from public schools, and that issue is called vouchers.  The public knows little about them as the concept has many different meanings depending on who you ask.  Here is my understanding of vouchers based on what I have read and seen in other states.

Vouchers give parents choice in where to send their child to school. 

• Currently without vouchers, parents already have a choice in where to send their children to school.  
• Schools that fail to meet state accountability requirements must offer parents the option (at the district's expense) to send their child to another public school within the district.  This is in place for districts with multiple enrollment schools.
• Most public school districts accept students who wish to transfer in from another school.
• For parents who wish to have their children educated through private schools or homeschool, that choice currently exists also.
• School choice already exists, and furthermore, this current form of choice doesn't take money from public schools!

Vouchers take Money from Public Education

• A voucher essentially takes money from a public school and gives it to the parent to use at the private institution of their choice. 
• Parents could send their child to private school or homeschool and the state would pay the parents for it.
• The state will subsidize vouchers by taking the money from the public school system.  There's no other way to pay for it. (BTW - Did I mention that schools currently are not adequately funded?)
• With a voucher system in place, public schools are left with less money to educate ALL kids.

Forget the Dollars & Let's Talk Sense.

Let's forget the topic of money and just look at the issue of vouchers preparing all kids for the future.  After all, the entire argument for vouchers is that it is a better way to educate all kids. 

1. What research supports vouchers as being a more effective way to educate ALL children? 
2. Will non-public school entities (private, home-school, etc.) that accept students with vouchers be required to be evaluated under the same TEA accountability standards as its public school counterparts do?
3. Will non-public school entities that accept students with vouchers be held to the same End-Of-Course requirements for high school students as its public school counterparts?
4. Will non-public school entitites that accept students with vouchers be required to have 100% percent of their staff meet highly qualified certification requirements as its public school counterparts?
5. Will non-public school entitites that accept vouchers be required to be accredited as its public school counterparts do?
6. Will non-public school entities that accept students with vouchers be required to administer all state tests as its public school counterparts do? (STAAR, STAAR-A, SOA, STAAR-Spanish, STAAR-Alt 2, TELPAS, TPRI, etc.).  
7. Will non-public school entities that accept students with vouchers be required to accept every student that shows up on their door step as its public school counterparts do and meet their individualized needs? (Special Education, 504, G/T, ESL, RtI, etc.)
8. Will non-public school entities that accept students with vouchers be required to track every student and submit evidence (like public schools are required to do) to ensure that no child drops out of school?
9. Will non-public school entities that accept students with vouchers be required to offer rigorous college AND career pathways (see House Bill 5) that help push every child to graduate under the Texas Recommended High School, Distinguished Achievement Program or the new Foundation High School Program as its public school counterparts do?

The reason that I have these questions is because they are based on state requirements that all public schools are required to follow.  Non-public school institutions currently don't have to adhere to all of these requirements.  If these schools are going to accept state funds to educate students, then they should be required to follow the same stringent guidelines as its public school counterparts.  Furthermore, they should be evaluated with the same measuring stick.

Some legislators tout that public schools are failing and private schools are not.  That is not a fair statement because public schools exist in a punitive system of accountability while private schools make their own rules. Additionally, private schools pick and choose their students, while public school accept and educate ALL KIDS!  There's just no comparison.

Vouchers aren't for ALL Kids

The last issue I have surrounds all kids.  Have our legislators realized that taking money from public schools hurts kids?  A voucher system is nothing short of taking money from public schools and giving it to private entities that currently do not have the same requirements or more importantly evidence of effectiveness.

Don't get me wrong.  I'm not against private schools.  I am against the state legislature taking money collected for the purpose of educating the public and giving it private schools.

Stay Informed

If you also share these questions or have additional questions, please join me in asking our state legislators these questions at http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us/.  I would definitely like to know how a system that plans to divert money from public schools will help the kids left in public schools.

Finally, Public Education in Texas is Effective.  

Graduation rates in Texas are one of the highest in the nation.  ACT and SAT participation and performance rates are improving.  More students are on a college or career pathway than ever in the history of our state.  If more students are being successful than ever before, then why would the government redirect money away from an improving system?  If you believe the future of our nation, then you want to ensure that the public receives the highest quality education. Any legislation that detracts from educating the public is essentially killing the future prosperity of our nation.

Rage "with" the Testing Machine

Over the past 10+ years in my administrative role, I have seen just how important state tests are in a child's life. Regardless what you believe about standardized testing, it is the gatekeeper to the rest of a child's life. No matter how much you may want to change the legislature's mind about standardized testing, today's kids can't get into college without it, and in states like mine, Texas, "The Test" must be passed in order for any child to graduate from high school.

#It'sThatImportant

Raging against the machine is one way to take a stand, but we mustn't do it at the cost of our children's education. Personally, I don't want my children to be taught to a test, but I don't want my children to have teachers who choose to ignore the test either. I want my children to be prepared for college because education has epic impact on the quality of their future.  I want my child to be taught above the test.   For today, the test is a necessity for them to get to college.  It is their proverbial rite of passage.

Let's Take a Test

Here's a multiple choice test question for you. I want to know what is the best pathway to solve an educational quandary that has be plaguing our nation for quite a while. 

Which method would be the best way to prepare kids for the real world while making a significant change to our current system of standardized testing?

A. You can advocate against testing by keeping your children home on testing days.

B. You can say "There's nothing we can do", and continue to live with the machine and prepare kids for the test. 

C.  You can prepare kids of today to be successful in today's system while also actively promoting and advocating for a new and more meaningful method to gauge each student's college or career readiness. 

D. Make a suggestion in the comments below. 

Now let's break down those answers. 

A.  Wrong.  (Win-Lose). While I don't disagree with taking a stand, this decision negatively impacts kids in the process. It tells kids that they don't have to take or pass a test that is a requirement to earn a diploma. 

B. Wrong (Win-Lose). Sure kids will be prepared to pass the test, but the machine will also be reinforced as a best practice to assess kids' preparation for the real world. Nothing changes. 

C. Correct. (Win-win). This answer is the right kind of thinking. Educators with this mindset are preparing kids for life under the current system while proposing progressive changes that will be more beneficial to gauge academic readiness for future generations.

Raging with the Machine is the Democratic Process in Action. 

Having a win-win mindset as opposed to an "either-or" philosophy is exactly what our country was founded upon. If you  want to change education, you can't throw the baby out with the bathwater. We must remember all kids still have to meet today's standards.  These governmental requirements are what our kids need for life. Whether you like it or not, this is their reality, and you must make sure it is a positive one for them.  Conversely, you should work feverishly to think about future generations, the skills they will need, and the assessments that will best determine mastery of those skills. Standardized testing has been here for a long time, and there are many people who want to see it continue. Fighting against it will do no good.  Fighting with it and offering plausible solutions is what will ultimately make a lasting and productive impact on all kids and the future of education. . 

Why Education Can't Afford to Pass the Buck

Kicking kids out of school, having them quit or quietly disappear has been a fact of life as long as there has been school.  If the student wouldn't perform, he would be asked or ordered to not return to class or school all together. This response is similar to the business model.  If the employee doesn't show up for work on time, fails to do the work as assigned, is dishonest or refuses to follow directives, he will be fired.  The business model works to teach the employee an important lesson.  If you can't work here, you will need to find work elsewhere.  Employees leave and hopefully learn their lesson as they look for their next job.

While firing employees who fail to perform works in business, this model doesn't necessarily transfer to the education sector.  When a student does what it takes to be fired from school, what lesson is learned?  Where do students go for their next learning opportunity?

The lesson learned is that if the student doesn't conform, he is no longer required to learn essential skills anymore.  He can stay home everyday which is what many struggling students desire to do anyway.  He can transfer to the school of the streets where he can learn skills that will prepare him for a life of crime.  He can go to work at a part-time, minimum wage job which will be the highest level career that he can attain.

 

So in essence, allowing students to fire themselves from school relegates them to a life of poverty or crime. 

Let's look at poverty and crime for a second. 

1. More people are dependent on governmental assistance than ever in our nation's history. 
2. The imprisonment rate is the highest in our nation's history at over 2.5 million prisoners currently locked up in the penitentiary. 
3. Our courts are flooded with criminal cases to the point that it would take 10 years for the courts to try every case that was filed this year. (Yes, that is correct. 10 years to try this year's cases) Judges have no choice but to make plea agreements, so criminals can be punished.
4. Once a person is convicted of a crime, he is virtually unemployable for any middle class career for the rest of his life.
5. The majority of crimes that police officers deal with involve people in poverty.
6. Domestic abuse has a higher chance of occurring in families of poverty than not.
7. Children of poverty come to school more than 2 years behind their affluent counterparts.
8. Children of imprisoned parents have a greater chance of having emotional and social issues than children whose parents are not in the penal system.
9. More children are being raised by grandparents, aunts, uncles and guardians than ever before.
10. It costs $27 to educate a student for one day while it costs $65 to house an inmate in jail for a day.

The effects of poverty and crime are staggering!!!

At some point, these former students gave up on school.  They quit or the school sent them on their way.  While I do not wish to argue the validity of whether these former students were difficult or deserving of consequences or accountability.  I do want to illustrate the point that by removing them from education, education is passing the buck on to the government; hence the taxpayer.  In other words, for every student that fails to be educated, the student and his children become dependents of the nation and its resources.  The student never learns the intended lesson, to be an independent productive member of society. 

We can no longer afford to pass the problem onto someone else.  No one is better equipped to prevent poverty and crime than education. While education is completely overwhelmed, every other governmental agency is overwhelmed as well.  The only way that we can address this issue is to not pass the buck onto someone else but work with the other agencies to hold students and their parents accountable for ensuring that their child is educated. 

Education is the only hope to reduce or possibly end the cycle of poverty and crime.  Educators must know that we are the last line of defense to save children from becoming another statistic of systemic dependence.  We must accept the moral obligation to educate every child and prevent children from choosing a life of poverty and crime.

My final thought is this.  For every buck that we pass onto someone else, it will cost us 10 bucks to deal with it forever.  That is why we can't afford to pass the buck.