• Home
• Calendar
• Schools
  • High School
  • Middle School
  • Avalon
  • Elmwood
  • Koepsell
• School Board
• For Staff
  • Aesop SubFinder
  • Data Director
  • E-Mail System
  • MISD - PS Admin
  • MISD - PS Teachers
  • MISD - PS Subs
  • Technology Help Desk
• Departments
  • Superintendent
  • Curriculum
  • Budget and Finance
  • Personnel/Employment
  • Special Services
  • Technology
  • Maintenance
  • Athletics
  • Fine and Performing Arts
  • Food Service
• Links/Media Center
• District Information
  • Our Mission and Goals
  • Employment Opportunities
  • District Newsletter
  • Map to South Lake
  • District Map
  • Student Handbook
  • P.A. 25 Report
  • Bus Schedules
  • Forms/Downloads
  • E-Mail Directory

Google Search

News and Information

Everywhere you go lately, people are sharing their opinions regarding public education. While those of us in the field are hardly satisfied with the data, it seems that most of us are using the performance of a small percentage of schools to define the entire system. With a little research, the findings change in a pretty remarkable way.

We hear a lot about high school graduation rates across the country. The sad fact is that approximately 1.2 million students entering ninth grade each year do fail to graduate.  This is a dismal statistic. However, the drop-out rate has been declining each year since 1972.  The rate in 1972 was 15% and in 2008 had dropped to 8%. The class of 2008 had 120,000 more graduates than the class of 2001.  Our goal is a 0% drop-out rate and 100% graduation rate, but we need to look at trends before judging how we are doing.

Each year the results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, NAEP, are published. This is an assessment taken by 4^th and 8^th grade students in math and reading.  While we are not satisfied with the results, when looking at the data over the years we find that the scores have never been higher than they are today.  This does not mean that we should be satisfied with the current results, only that we view them with accuracy.

The interesting thing about schools is that they are very personal.  Parents who on the one hand might feel that schools in the United States are failing, on the other hand clearly feel that their children’s schools are succeeding. During the 25 years that the Phi Delta Kappa and Gallup Poll have surveyed parents, the grades that they have given their oldest child’s school have continued to improve.  In the 2010 poll, 77% of U.S. parents gave their schools either an “A” or “B”.

Yes, we need to improve achievement, reduce achievement gaps, raise graduation rates and continue to reduce drop-out rates.  But, while continuing to do so we need to also take a realistic and objective look at where we are and how we have grown.  Not being satisfied with where we are should not prevent us from acknowledging from where we have come.

*Data taken from Dr. Daniel Domenech’s the “95/5 dilemma” report.

Pamela Balint