Schools Working Group

The Working Group on Schools held its meeting on January 16 at UFT headquarters. Participants included representatives of the Council of Supervisors and Administrators, the UFT, United Way, the Literacy Assistance Center, the Liberty partnership program, Mott Haven Prep HS, parents’ representatives, City Council staff and Directions for Our Youth.

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Resources
From your perspective, what resources are necessary for a substantial improvement in the dropout rate?

1. The appropriate high School guidance counselor to student ratio should be 250 students per counselor. In many schools it is 600, 700 or 800 per counselor. The professionally appropriate ratio should be implemented.
2. Need for curriculum enhancements and extra-curricular developments that would be attractive to at risk students, especially boys.
3. Need to re-establish night schools and expand the Young Adult Borough Centers.
   Comment
   

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Procedures
What procedures need to be changed in order to significantly impact potential dropouts?

1. City needs an early warning system to identify most likely dropouts in first year of high school and possibly in middle school. Identify dropout as a process not an event.
2. City needs workshops for parents about high school articulation and selection process.
3. City needs summer orientation sessions to orient families to high school process, expectations and challenges.
4. Student high school placements require more customization and need to be more student-centric.
   Comment
   

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Policies
What policies do you think the school and the government need to adopt to curb the dropout rate?

1. Need to establish a common language and measurement tool to assist in learning which schools, which neighborhoods are most distressed. Suggest the creation of a dropout/graduation ratio which would influence schools’ behavior in terms of ‘discharging’ students and ‘clearing’ registers in order to demonstrate good graduation rates.
2. Need to significantly expand role of CBOs in providing supplemental guidance services for students.
3. Change high school from an expected graduation rate of four years to five or six, especially for ELL students.
   Comment
   

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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?

1. Principals, teachers and parents/guardians all need to learn how to identify and intervene with students before they become significantly at risk of dropping out.
2. A handbook for Principals, teachers and parents should be available which can help spot the variables which are most likely to lead to early separation from school.
3. Research needed on the impact of raising the compulsory school age law to 17 or 18 as is the case in more than half the states.
   Comment