A Gotham Schools article by Philissa Kramer showed that new high school requirements could cause the graduation rate in New York City to plummet.
Five years ago, the graduation rate was 37 percent. Now, it is just more than 50 percent but could drastically decrease as a result of the following requirements:
- "Beginning with this year's freshman class, all students will have to earn a Regents diploma by scoring a 65 or higher on five different state exams. Until now, the state has allowed students who scored between 55 and 64 on any of the tests to graduate with a less rigorous diploma."
At the Department of Education press conference, the Coalition for Educational Justice and other advocates were among those who urged that the DOE turn its focus to the high schools. Manhattan borough president Scott Stringer and the DOE's middle school initiatives leader Sabrina King both agreed that the groups' requests were reasonable. King said the DOE has added Regents-level courses to more middle schools in hopes of increasing the eighth grade promotion rate, as well.
"Student performance in eighth grade is a predictor of high school graduation, so we knew we had to start early," King said. "Otherwise, [students] don't have a fighting chance."
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Interesting and relevant post, though some followup reporting by you would clarify what's going on here and fill in some holes. What is this Department of Education Press conference you're referring to - do you mean that it's a press conference sponsored by DOE? If not, who called it and for what purpose? Was it in support of or in response to a particular demand, piece of research, or what?
ReplyDeleteFrom the Gotham Schools story it sounds like they're promoting the findings and demanding followup on a new report - if that's the same press conference you're talking about then you should cite the report and its findings too. Remember that a blog post has to contain sufficient info to orient a reader to what's going on; you can't assume a reader will click through (indeed, your job as a blogger is to compel them to click through by providing the best nuggets of info).
Related to that, I'm not sure if the first line of your post is the correct one to lead with. Is the news here really that Gotham Schools made this finding? Wasn't this finding really what the advocates are saying, and Gotham Schools (as a hybrid journalism/advocacy site) is merely reporting on the event and report? That was the sense I got; if so the lede would have to focus on the report, advocates, and their findings.