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How does a student dropout of elementary school? Were they 16 years old and in the 6th grade?

How does a student dropout of elementary school? Were they 16 years old and in the 5th grade?

Omar, these are the rates for these years and are related to High School Students.

Omar,
The dropouts tracked has nothing to do with age, although in the majority of cases the students are in high school. All a student has to do is meet the state's definition of a dropout (i.e. the student left and the district hasn't been able to find the student).

Looks like there has been no improvement in 4 years then.

I must not have been clear in my question. The story above makes this statement "Seven additional students dropped out in elementary and middle schools."

Since I believe that you have to be 16 years of age to legally dropout of school, wouldn't a student have to be 16 years old and in elementary school here? If that is so, then we could have had a 16 year-old in the 5th grade, which is the final year of elementary school?

Garth, the story says seven students dropped out of elementary and middle school. I am trying to get my arms around those seven students and understand it. am I misunderstanding the intent of this statement?

I understand your question. If I'm not mistaken, elementary and middle school student data is often grouped together. Yes, we do have sixteen year-olds at the middle school level (I have taught them). It is likely that those were drop outs at the middle school level or like Morgan said, an elementary or middle school student left and they have not been able to find them. This happens when families abruptly move or a child is moved to live somewhere else. I hope that helps and if anyone has any additional information, please add it on.

Omar:
My apologies, and Andi is absolutely correct...hence a new middle school program for the 16 and over middle school crowd. I had thought your question was different as the rate for this group is unusual at best.

In my quest for improvement I am a great critic of Terry's, now in all fairness I must say that his ideas for fixing some problems are quite valid in concept and only lacking in implementation. I see a glimmer of hope in that we as a Board are now drawing attention to the poor implementation and the lack of academic performance for our better students as well.

Several Board members were present and no administration officials for a discourse with Admissions officials who informed us how poorly our graduates were doing on entry to college. Grade inflation evidently is alive and well here in Guilford County, and some schools were named specifically. I will not name them as it would be unfair to these students attending, but much can be found online. What is sad is the increase in our kids dropping out after a year of college or underperforming their first year.

This is another drop out rate we should be concerned with!

I have questioned grade inflation for years. Mainly in AP classes. I have wondered if the rate of passing AP exams should not be directly related to grades, but it doesn't seem so. When you have one school with 6% and one with 60 plus% something is strange. What are the grades for those classes? What are the standards. Taking AP is obviously challenging, but are the grades appropriate?

What do you expect teachers to do as far as grading when Dr. Grier wants every child to take an AP class?...and we are putting kids in honors classes that have no business being there. Parents have smartened up and are pushing the kids towards honors because college prep classes have become behavioral nightmares.

Garth, I would love some research done as to how many "College Prep" high school students are attending college two and four year colleges and universities......

I'm so discouraged by the spinning of info so we can look good......when are we going to make an effort to actually BE a good school system?

I talked to Dr Grier about 2 years ago about CP and told him it was very misleading to parents. While those of us that are involved realize that CP is not really college prep, many parents think that their kids are being prepared for college. As you said, CP is now a behavior nightmare. I suggested that we rename CP to basic English, but I guess that is not going to happen.

As far as grading classes, if those in honors and AP got the grade they earned without inflation, perhaps parents would wake up and put their students in the right class, quit letting them be railroaded into classes they can't handle. Challenge them in the classes they take instead of just letting them survive in a harder class. This is not true for all, but many can't handle the course load and make bad grades, which in turns hurt their chance to get into the college of their choice.

Comments I heard regarding AP classes were very disheartening. I seriously doubt my son will take AP classes as the effect on major universities outside NC is more negative than I dreamed. Inside they were very negative about our AP program as well. Good consistent grades in honors appears to be as important as SAT or ACT and fluff like orchestra band and photo is frequently discounted to nothing.

Taking easy load as Senior is also a strong negative indicator. Yes I was very discouraged. I wish I could have had every freshman and parent there to hear what I heard to help them plan for college and High School experience. We fall flat on our face in this area!
Garth

If you child can make a high grade in an AP class, then he is ok. However, if he is only going to get a C or lower, then he is better off being in other classes. Many minority families understand this. Parents have to know their child, if he is not the striving, achieving and excelling kind, he would be better off in other classes.

Garth,
as the parent of a ninth grader, I would love to hear more about the AP influence or lack there of. Tell us the differnce between what in state and out of state schools think. Why do they think this way? How can we get the word out to parents?

Debora:
This is a great idea for a community forum. Any volunteers to help put together. I am sure the different universities could again send key people and it would help so many High School kids. I am volunteering, any other takers?
Garth

Garth: We just finished going through this process with my nephew. What we learned was that while grades in extracurricular activities may not receive the same weight as grades in other subjects, participation and accomplishment in extracurricular activities gives students an edge. With so much competition among applicants with good grades, admissions officers look for achievements that demonstrate important qualities that grades alone don't reveal, such as responsibility, an ability to work with others, and personal commitment.

So while the grades in band and orchestra may not be as critical as those in other subjects, participation and achievement in these pursuits is hardly "fluff". Indeed, in a crowded field achievement in such pursuits may be precisely the factor that makes an applicant stand out.

Garth,
great idea, I'm there, just let me know when and where.

Garth,
I would love to attend a community forum about the value of AP classes. I think it is all very confusing and having an 8th grader as my oldest this is the first time for us and we appreciate every bit of information we can get.

Some top tier colleges look at the students unweighted GPA and may give a half point to an AP class or may just look at the unweighted GPA. The score on the AP exam is what a college looks at for credit/placement purposes.
Less competive schools look at both weighted and unweighted GPA's. We found this to be true for top in state and out of state schools.
Before you sign your child up for an AP or IB class you can find out how well the previous year performed by teacher. Some high school teachers post this information on their web pages. This is only our experience and looking at schools like RPI, Georgia Tech, Clemson, etc.

Cathy,
since HS kids sign up for classes in Feb usually, the scores would have to be from the previous year, not the current year; if I understand what you are saying.
Did you find that most UNC colleges looked at weighted or unweighted or both.

Thanks

The scores for the May 2006 exams are available and that is what is posted. Since my children go to a GCS that follows a traditional schedule those results are the most current exam results.
Some colleges want to see that you took the hardest courses offered by your high school. My son is only looking at NCState and no other UNC schools because of the Major he wants to pursue. I did not go on that visit, but I believe they ask for the cumulative GPA and did not specify weighted or unweighted. Our high school lists both the weighted and unweighted on the transcript.

Pearce,

Excellent post.

Garth,

I too agree that kids who are involved in what you term "fluff" often have better time management skills, which allows for greater success on the collegiate level. Many of my academic colleagues have stated this time and again that time management is the key determinant to academic success in collage. Furthermore, as a testimonial, I knew a young lady who received a full scholarship to an Ivy League school for the very fact that examples of her photography had been on exhibit at the Smithsonian and the Natural History Museum in London. It was the "fluff" that made her stand out among all the other applicants who also had excellent grades and SAT scores.

Cathy,

You are correct in that there is wide variability among what AP credit universities will give to an incoming student. It doesn't matter what AP classes you took but rather if you took the course test and scored at least a 4 or better. Even then, there is no guarantee that a particular university will give you credit. Some will and some won't. One component of AP in GCS that needs to be done away with is awarding higher grade points based on an AP class. This is grade inflation pure and simple. The truth of the matter is once in college an A in Biochemistry and an A in Introduction to Golf both give you 4.0 points.

BTB

Oops, that should have been "college" not collage.

My daughter spent the first year of HS at High Point Central. We got her back "home" to Southwest after the choice plan died =). In the two AP exams she took last year she scored 4's. Two of her best friends at Central have a higher GPA but only managed a 2 on their world Histroy AP exam. She regularly benchmarks her school activities with her friends and is always amazed that these girls keep getting A's without doing as much work as she has to. Its much harder to get an A at Southwest.