Montgomery County is in the news once again for creating a system to track future drop-outs as early as 1st grade. At the top of the list? Chronic absenteeism and low grades. I understand the first indicator, but the second, low grades, makes me question the study. It's kind of a "duh" for most teachers. It reminds me of when they introduced the Seven Keys and said that because the high achievers were taking Algebra I by 8th grade, everyone needs Algebra I by 8th grade. It's a misuse of data. I hope we will not start hounding 1st graders to get better grades -- that would certainly make me want to drop out. It's no surprise that English Language Learners are overrepresented among the drop out data. I'm curious to know if these findings measure drop-outs by the graduates-in-four-years yardstick. That would be wrong. ELLs often need longer in school to acquire more English. Some of my students withdraw at age 18 or 19 and come back a year later to get their diplomas. I hate the label "dropout" and wish we could find a way to create different pathways to a diploma.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2013/07/29/37firstgrade.h32.html?tkn=MLXFm%2FUb9fyfyJtF4%2FWvxbdNw...%
