Oklahoma Drop-Outs

The State Department of Education just released the 2007 Profiles report on all schools in Oklahoma. I haven't fully read it yet, but one thing immediately jumped out at me. Over the course of four years of high school, 24% of Oklahoma students will leave school. Clearly, failure to complete basic secondary education is large problem in Oklahoma. Without this basic education, these (former) students are at a severe disadvantage, economically and socially. They earn far less income, depend more heavily on social welfare programs, commit more crimes, have more children, and use more drugs.

One school in particular deserves attention: Nathan Hale High School in Tulsa. Somehow, this school has a drop-out rate of 48%. Someone explain why this school is allowed to remain in operation. Only 37% of the students are performing at satisfactory levels in Math. 47% are performing at satisfactory levels in English. It doesn't appear the problem is going to be resolved any time soon. It seems likely Nathan Hale will be targeted for shutdown as a result of No Child Left Behind, and the state will be required to facilitate the transfer of students out of this school if the problems persist.

Of course the problem is larger than Nathan Hale High School. Historically, Oklahomans tend to set goals so low that we promote mediocrity instead of excellence. The Oklahoma graduation rate goal, the setting of which is required by NCLB, is one example. What is our graduation rate goal? 68%. That means our government and education leaders are willing to give up on 32% of our students. We can't afford allowing 32% of our students to enter society and the economy without a basic education and expect them to be fully functioning and contributing citizens.

Furthermore, the method we use to calculate our graduation rate is absurd and misleading. We calculate it by dividing the number of senior graduates by the number of senior graduation plus senior drop-outs. Thus, it only counts seniors and ignores those students lost in 9th, 10th, and 11th grade. We can see the absurdity of this method by again looking at Nathan Hale. Though nearly half of the school's students dropped out by the time they reached senior status, under this calculation Nathan Hale has an 84% graduation rate. Either we want to live in a fantasy land by convincing ourselves we're doing better than we really are or we are seeking to deceive Federal officials and concerned parents. Actually, it's likely both.