Making a difference on the dropout rate

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Higher grad rates could add to bonuses

Teachers could soon get more than just a moral bonus from helping students graduate from high school.

The State Board of Education could agree today to tie teacher bonuses to high school graduation rates as part of an overhaul of North Carolina's school testing program. Elimination of the state's controversial writing tests could also be approved today, in what's being billed as an effort to bring the state's testing program into the 21st century.

"If we're trying to improve the dropout rate and the graduation rate, we have to take a look at it and try something different," said Bill McNeal, former Wake County superintendent and now executive director of the N.C. Association of School Administrators.

Concentrate on minority graduation

Busing our students is not the only way - or necessarily the best way - to make sure North Carolina is achieving equality in its public schools. We do not have to look farther than the Wake County school system to understand this.

Wake County has redistricted its students for years, and although individual schools may be more diverse, the aggregate graduation percentages for high school minority students do not compare well with those of other counties. Last year, Wake County graduated 63.4 percent of its black students and 51.1 percent of its Hispanic students who had entered the ninth grade for the first time in the fall of 2005. Consequently, among the state's 115 school districts, Wake County ranks 69th in graduating its black students and 85th in graduating its Hispanic students.

Guilford County Schools (GCS) also buses its students, but through investing additional and appropriately targeted resources into its partnership with Communities In Schools, the district has moved closer to achieving graduation

Durham: Keep kids in school to 18

She had a part-time job at Wendy's and a false sense of security. As a 17-year-old dropout, LaTasha McNeil thought she could make it on her own.

She was wrong.

After nearly a year of selling fries and Frosties, McNeil returned to Hillside High School and earned her diploma because a former teacher said, "You've come too far to quit."

Legislators hear of Durham's needs

City, county and Durham Public Schools officials got little but the promise of more meetings out of their sit-down with state Senate leader Marc Basnight and other legislators Tuesday.

Of course, the point of the rare "Town Hall" meeting was only to put issues on the table, not get firm commitments.

Basnight, a Dare County Democrat, expressed willingness to work with local leaders on new programs to reduce the dropout rate and develop better strategies for future droughts.

Dropout plan is in motion

Students used to playing hooky, brace yourselves.

Durham school officials have a 23-page plan to curb dropout rates, an outline they presented in a meeting with school board members Tuesday.

The priority is making sure students are in school in the first place. That means giving students incentives to come to school, rewarding their positive behavior and, if students misbehave, finding alternatives to suspension, which costs valuable class time.