How do you get more kids to graduate from high school?
That is the focus of hearings to be conducted throughout the state during the next several months, starting with one today in Grand Rapids.
A sound policy to stem the crisis has eluded legislators and school officials for decades, but the problem is clear:
"If we don't find a way to keep young people in school, we are sentencing them to a life of poverty," said Ron Koehler, assistant superintendent of the Kent Intermediate School District, of the estimated 20,000 students who drop out of school in Michigan each year.
Stay in school
State and local school groups are working to keep more students in school. Here's why:
-- Dropouts are more likely to face a lifetime of poverty, earning an average annual salary of $15,000, which is $34,000 less than a college graduate.
-- About 20,000 Michigan students drop out of school each year, costing the state $2.5 million annually.
-- Turning one potential dropout into a graduate saves the state $127,000 in welfare payments, health care and crime and justice costs.
Nationwide, each dropout costs about $127,000 in lost tax revenue, in welfare payments, health care costs and police, court and jail fees, according to a study by Columbia University's Teacher College.
State officials have proposed a couple of plans over the past several years, such as boosting the legal dropout age from 16 to 17 or 18 and revoking the driver's license of a dropout. None has become law.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm is renewing her call for recommendations, prompting the Michigan Education Association, Michigan Association of Intermediate School Districts, Michigan charter schools and others to hold hearings.
Comments may be made at the Kent Career Technical Center, 1655 East Beltline Ave., from 4-6 p.m. today.
The rate at which students drop out of school varies by district, as does the formula used to calculate who leaves early. A 2007 study by Johns Hopkins University pegged several area high schools as "dropout factories" because, according to their data, the schools failed to graduate at least 60 percent of their students.
Those numbers are in stark contrast to dropout rates cited by the schools themselves and the state Department of Education. The Johns Hopkins study and others have the public believing that dropout rates are much worse than they are, said Forest Hills Public Schools Superintendent Dan Behm.
"The varying percentages call attention to the importance of creating a uniform method of calculating the dropout rate," he said. "Technically, kids that drop out are ones that leave high school and don't attend any other institution that awards a diploma."
But students who switch high schools, attend alternative schools, obtain a GED or finish a little late often are considered dropouts. That's because state and local educators aren't very good at tracking students who move between schools or districts.
Perhaps even more important than a formula for calculating the rate is a focus on how to help students succeed, said Grand Rapids Public Schools Superintendent Bernard Taylor.
"Let's look at what it takes for students to be successes," he said.
Attendance rules and fill-in-the bubble tests don't measure "mastery of content" are one-size-fits-all policies that don't work for all students, Taylor said.
"I definitely think a student should stay in school past 16, but some of those dropping out have the most pronounced needs. Where is the funding going to come from to meet those needs?" Taylor wondered.
In a cost-cutting move, the Wyoming school board voted last week to revoke the charter from Horizons Community High School because it was expensive to operate and students were dropping out.
"What are we accomplishing?" questioned Superintendent Jon Felske.
E-mail Beth Loechler: firstname.lastname@example.org