What People Are Saying About...

NYC as a model for effectively addressing the national dropout crisis

"Kids who quit school don't just suddenly drop out; it's more of a slow fade. Typically it begins in the ninth grade, if not earlier, often when life hits a particularly nasty patch and racking up credits in class no longer seems especially compelling or plausible. Ernestine Maisonet started fading in eighth grade, when the grandmother who had raised her died...Tanya Garcia, 19, of Brooklyn also went off track at the end of middle school. A fire destroyed her family's apartment and left them homeless for four months....Against all odds, Maisonet and Garcia are slated to graduate in New York City's class of 2007. They are among some 13,000 students who dropped out or were on the verge of doing so but have been recovered in the public school system. The city's secret? Finding out who was dropping out and why and offering a variety of paths-complete with intensive social support and personalized instruction-back to school." - "Stopping the Exodus," Time Magazine, May 3, 2007


Continued improvement in NYC Public School graduation rates

"By Mills' count - not the count of Bloomberg or Klein - only 44% of the students who entered high school in the city in 2000 wound up graduating in four years, but 50% of the kids who started in 2002 successfully completed their studies in four years. For comparison purposes, the graduation rate fell in New York's next four largest cities and remained static across the state.


Equally encouraging, when students who took five years to get through were counted, the graduation rate stood at 57%. All the arrows, in fact, were up, and if trends continue, the five-year graduation rate could well top 60% in 2007. Although that's still below the state average, we're seeing sustained upward progress - along with a vindication of Bloomberg and Klein's policies, such as shutting big failing high schools and replacing them with smaller schools.


Many have attacked the reforms, and many have doubted whether students were actually learning more... but Mills has now certified the trend. And it is happily up. So much so that Mills pointed other districts to some of the techniques now in use in the city's schools, virtually all of which hinge on constantly measuring the progress of individual students and tailoring teaching to their needs. The approach is at the heart of the drive by Bloomberg and Klein to hold everyone in every school accountable for producing results, as opposed to moving students along on a conveyor belt of failure. It's very basic, and it's working. Well done. - New York Daily News, April 26, 2007


Worth reading:

"School reform could also play a major role in fighting poverty and spreading opportunity. One sound proposal is to pay substantial bonuses to get the most effective teachers into schools with low-income students. It's simply unfair for America's neediest students to be continually assigned to the weakest teachers, perhaps consigning them to another generation of poverty. Higher pay will help recruit and retain excellent teachers." - Nicholas D. Kristof, "Gold Stars and Dunce Caps," New York Times, May 1, 2007