ODYSSEYWARE

Each year, Education Week’s Diplomas Count releases a report regarding trends in high school graduation. This year’s report, entitled “Graduation by the Numbers: Putting Data to Work for Student Success”, offered a new and not so dismal perspective on America’s high schools and the students who attend them.

The big revelation: the graduation rate between 2006 and 2007 decreased yet again, but only by .4 percent.

The bigger revelation: a huge graduation gap exists in students from different demographic groups. While more than 75 percent of white and Asian students actually earn a diploma, the graduation rates for students in other demographic groups are dramatically lower:

• Latinos 56%

• African Americans 54%

• Native Americans 51%

According to the study, the “dropout epicenters” are “a combination of traditional big city districts and large countywide school systems.”

It stands to reason, then, that instead of attempting to reform the entire educational system in every school in America, resources should be focused where the need is the greatest. It also stands to reason that schools that earn high marks today will do what’s necessary to continue to serve students in the future without forced reforms.

In order to be “fair,” we race to the top and leave no child behind. With limited resources, perhaps it’s time we spend our money where it will do the most good and stop comparing our kids to those in countries with different standards and different cultures.

ODYSSEYWARE offers online curriculum that is ideally suited to students trying to recover credits toward graduation. Our Prescriptive Credit Recovery program helps struggling students earn diplomas every day and helps solve the dropout problem in schools in every demographic group.

What kinds of academic solutions do you believe are most effective in stopping the dropout epidemic?