One of the 10 Best Black Books of 2006! --Kam Williams, African American Literary Book Club
I taught Getting It Wrong to my undergrad black politics class. The book is a real tonic. --Adolph Reed, University of Pennsylvania
Purchase Getting It Wrong: How Black Public Intellectuals
Are Failing Black America by Algernon Austin
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[re-post]
Reading Dropouts in America: Confronting the Graduation Rate Crisis, edited by Gary Orfield, it is clear that many researchers who study high school dropouts are worried that the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) will increase the high school dropout rate for blacks and other disadvantaged groups. NCLB is the most recent and wide-reaching initiative of the movement for high-stakes testing in schools. With high-stakes testing, students are prevented from progressing with their education if they fail to pass a specific test. Since NCLB only became law in 2002, adequate data on this policy is still being collected. The researchers in Dropouts in America have based their analyses largely on other older high-stakes testing policies.
Over the past two decades, many states have instituted state-level high-stakes testing as a basis of promoting students. Under these policies, students who fail to pass a high-stakes test are held back to repeat a grade. Examining data from the mid-1980s to 2001, researchers have shown than states with high-stakes testing have had higher dropout rates than states without these policies.
In the mid-1990s, Chicago instituted a high-stakes test for students to enter high school. Students who did not receive a minimum score on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills were not allowed to enter the ninth grade. This policy produced a dramatic increase in the retention of black students in the eight grade. While the policy did produce an increase in test scores, it also increased the black high school dropout rate.
This research and many prior studies suggest that the high-stakes testing of NCLB may increase the black school dropout rate. The Act has a provision to require schools to be assessed based on graduation rates in addition to test scores, but the graduation rate requirement has not been enforced. This means that schools would actually benefit from having lower-performing students dropout. Average test-scores will increase if there are fewer lower-performing students in a school.
While it is good to push schools to better educate black students, a policy that produces more black dropouts does more harm than good. It is possible to improve black students’ achievement without resorting to the drastic and punitive measures of NCLB that are likely to increase the dropout rate. Conveniently, many of the policies that would improve black student achievement would also reduce the black student dropout rate.
The fact about a third of black high school dropouts go on to obtain a GED credential shows that academic achievement is not the only reason students dropout of school. The GED is designed so that 40 percent of students who received a high school diploma could not pass it. Any black student who received a GED is academically capable of completing high school.
Students dropout of school for a variety of reasons. Some are doing poorly in school. Many are simply bored with school and do not see its relevance to life outside of school. Some have conflicts with other students or with teachers. Some decide to work instead of going to school. Some dropout because they have a child or need to take care of a family member.
Smaller classes, more motivated, knowledgeable, and creative teachers, and more experiential and applied curricula would both increase black student achievement and prevent black students from dropping out because of boredom. NCLB seems to be producing schools that emphasize repetitive drilling for the high-stakes tests. Both students and high quality teachers who need schools to be more interesting and creative are likely to leave under these circumstances.
Students who have fallen behind academically need extra support, not additional academic punishments. Many of the students who are being held back in the ninth grade, have had academic difficulties for much of their school career. Indeed, one of the best high school dropout prevention programs is a highly effective pre-school program. After consistently doing poorly in school, low-performing students choose to drop out rather than to be subjected to additional academic embarrassment.
More moderately low-performing students could benefit from tutors and summer school instead of retention. Good alternative schools can be effective for students with more serious academic needs or for students with other social or personal problems.
Although passing the GED test is not easy, the GED credential when held by nonwhites is not valued by employers. Since a large number of high school dropouts later regret not finishing high school, they should be encouraged to obtain a high school diploma as an adult. For dropouts who are not planning on using a GED as a stepping stone to college, it may be particularly useful for them to obtain their high school diploma through an adult high school program instead of a GED.
There are ways to improve black students’ academic achievement without increasing the black dropout rate. It is too early to know for certain whether NCLB is such a program. Based on the existing research, few educational researchers would bet that it is.
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--Algernon Austin, Ph.D.
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