_______________________________________________
Resources
From your perspective, what resources are necessary for a substantial improvement in the dropout rate?
- Overwhelming need for space to be allocated to CBOs who work in schools.
- Need for a street worker who would serve as a bridge between neighborhoods and schools, engaging parents and nonprofits as well as faith-based organizations.
- Need for CBO partners for middle and high schools to fill in the gaps of extra-curricular and community-focused activities and events.
- Classes in and materials for the teaching of life skills in the schools to enable students in goal-setting, time management, avoiding negative peer pressure, etc.
Comment
Procedures
What procedures need to be changed in order to significantly impact potential dropouts?
- Acceptance by schools, DOE, Principals of crucial role played by CBOs in schools. CBOs should be viewed as schools’ partners and not have to grapple with the obstacles of hostility and being dismissed as lesser members of the school community.
- Schools need to spend considerably more time, energy, resources thinking of ways and implementing ideas to celebrate youth, as opposed to labeling them.
- School opening fees for CBOs need to be re-examined and reduced/eliminated.
- School security training should include elements of cultural sensitivity.
Comment
Policies
What policies do you think the school and the government need to adopt to curb the dropout rate?
- Schools should have accountability not simply to standardized tests but to community priorities as well. The new school report cards should reflect evaluation of schools by CBOs as well.
- School leadership teams need to be accountable to a committee or council outside the DOE so as to limit the over-reliance on standardized test scores as measures of success.
Comment
Training/Professional Development
What professional training is necessary to prepare school personnel to curb the dropout rate and create a climate of mutual respect in the school?
- Treat the dropout problem as a process and involve more community organizations, resources and talents in creating a climate of mutual respect in the schools.
Comment
13 comments:
« Tom Suozzi is no Loser The People Lost | GED Programs | Somos El Futuro de Long Island »
October 04, 2006
New York Needs Hip Hop GED Centers
By Profesor Martin Danenberg
“El Quijote del GED”
Parental involvement (teenage and other) includes greater knowledge, ability, and empowerment achieved by studying for the GED
PUT THE BUZZ ON THE STREET! We have to double the number of GED’s in Black and Latino communities (almost three million adults in New York State have no diploma). I lost a chance to impact on Sean Combs and Chancellor Joel Klein last night, but now they can read this article and other articles in ahorre.com. I had the chance to tell State Assembly Ruben Diaz, Jr. of the Bronx that I had already spoken to Assembly Jose Peralta and Senator Eric Schneiderman and told them we must double the money used for free GED testing in New York State. Things are getting worse each day and elected officials will be called upon to create new GED programs with funds that they receive from the legislature and city council.
The first educational forum of the Entertainers 4 Education was an emotionally charged event. People were critical of their government, teachers, counselors, parents, and themselves. One Black woman was especially critical of me for not wanting to teach Black children in regular schools and pushing them toward the GED (something that I did not attend the event to do and is completely untrue). I invited Mr. Adrian King, Program Manager of the Diversity Outreach Initiative of the GED Testing Service in Washington, D.C. to the event and he did not get a chance to speak. His comments below will reveal what was on his mind as he sat in the audience.
It was good to see so many people come out for the sake of showing youth the value of an education. Unfortunately, during the portion of the program for which I stayed, there was very little discussion about the importance of education—how do we sell high school graduation to underserved, low-income, minority students, who are faced with so many immediately gratifying alternatives?
The panel consisted of several individuals—politicians, entertainers, educators—who should have been able to form consensus about how best to utilize the allure of hip hop and the vast resources of entertainers to promote the value of education. Instead, audience members sat through long iterations of resumes and accomplishments, varying levels of “the blame game”, and, at some points, unbridled argumentation. One panelist, who did not finish high school, all but negated the importance of education based on her personal observations of her friends’ socioeconomic status compared to her financial achievement.
All the while there were many people in the audience whose commentary and input might have enriched the conversation in a meaningful way. There were actual high school students, parents, educators, and even business people who wanted to know how they could help. I left early, deeply disappointed that I didn’t gain insight into students’ motivation, learn of successful dropout intervention strategies, or see exactly what the sponsoring group was actually offering to alleviate the astounding dropout rate for New York.
Since I couldn’t share during the symposium, I wanted to offer some information about GED® Testing Service programs and services.
My attendance at this symposium was twofold: to listen in on the discussion as a lifelong learner and educator, and to see if there were collaboration opportunities with programs and projects that service our target population as program manager for GEDTS.
The GED® Tests was originally established to provide a way for returning service members to demonstrate a representative body of knowledge so that they could enter postsecondary education programs. As a program of the American Council on Education, the “Unifying Voice of Higher Education,” we offer a second chance to approximately 39 million Americans who have not earned a traditional high school diploma to demonstrate standard high school knowledge and skills, making them eligible for postsecondary education and advanced employment opportunities. The GED Tests are administered on the state level, with age limits and other requirements for GED® diploma eligibility. As such, I would like to emphasize two major points that have caused our organization to be misrepresented and perceived in a negative light:
• GEDTS never encourages students to drop out of school.
• The GED® diploma should not be viewed as a substitute for a traditional high school diploma.
Chancellor Joel Klein, the Reverend Al Sharpton, and Sean Combs did not attend the event. Councilman Charles Barron was critical of Chancellor Klein for not attending, but what about Al Sharpton and Sean Combs? They have offices, too, and someone could have represented them. People who spoke about class differences were right. New York City graduates about thirty-three percent, the Dominican Republic only graduates about twenty-five percent of its students, Puerto Rico has huge abandonment from school too. Obviously, racism is not as great a factor as people believe in the streets.
I cut my talk short because time had run out, but my proposal that the Department of Education open Hip-Hop GED Centers in every borough of the city was received with great applause. People invited me to help them start a GED program (in Jefferson High School), to appear on television, to partner with a hot radio station, to help set up the GED in the Cameroon in Africa, to speak at an event in Staten Island, and work closely with them from now on.
These were the things I wish I had time to say:
Put the buzz on the street about education and GED. Let us have a parade and festival for education and GED.
Establish Hip-Hop GED Centers with my friends in each borough.
End the abusive 2,500 minimum passing score on the Practice Test for sending students to the real test.
Mobilize entire communities and not just the people in class.
Give each GED student a GED book to take home to use for independent study.
For a long time, teenagers were absent from community libraries. Now they’re back – in droves – primarily for access to the Internet (email, social networking sites, etc.) Not surprisingly, dropouts especially, are using these services, since they’re free, no one questions them, and there is a library in every neighborhood.
The Queens Library has been struggling to think of ways to capitalize on this. We’d like to provide more meaningful programs and portals to re-connect them to educational and work opportunities. We share the concern that this situation is at crisis proportions. But, since they are coming to us freely and in great numbers, the library is in a position to make a difference.
We’d like to be part of this discussion. I look forward to keeping up with the results of the summit.
Kathy Degyansky
Assistant Director
Programs and Services
Queens Library
718-990-0887
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Education is perhaps one of the best ways that you can make an investment in your life, and often this provides not only an immediate sense of satisfaction by gaining your GED, but also can provide a long term pay off by allowing access to better jobs, higher education, and a more fulfilling quality of life. The GED book types mentioned here are a wonderful starting point in getting further in life than you could without a GED certificate.
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