By DR. LARRY MOSES
No one asked me but… With election season heating up, expect the state Republicans to break out one of their favorite whipping boys: public education.
They champion a number of educational myths as if they were facts. The powerful teacher union, teacher tenure, the teacher’s retirement program, and the falling graduation rate will all be targets. The fact that the teacher union has had little influence on education in Clark County, there is no teacher tenure in Nevada, PERS is part of the teacher’s salary package, and that the graduation rate has not declined seems not to matter to the Nevada Republicans. All these issues merit comment, but for now, I will limit myself to the graduation rate.
As Daniel Patrick Moynihan correctly states, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.” Detractors of public education bemoan the graduation rate of present day schools and they long for the good old days.
The human mind is a marvelous thing. As we look back, we have tendency to do so with fondness. However, factual data often does not always support the idyllic. We look back and remember how the toilet never had to be plunged. We forget how cold the outhouse was in December, and how bad it smelled in July.
Those who attended public high schools in the 1950’s will tell you how great their education was in comparison to that of today. However, those who attended public schools in the 1930’s were about as impressed with schools in the 1950’s as we old curmudgeons are with our present day schools.
“Education is the most important problem facing the United States today” and “only the massive upgrading of the scholastic standards of our schools will guarantee the future prosperity and freedom of the Republic.” This quote is from Admiral Hyman Rickover’s book: Education, and Freedom (1959). The Admiral’s second book, Swiss Schools and Ours (1962), was a scathing comparison of the educational systems of Switzerland and America. He argued that the higher standards of Swiss schools, including a longer school day and year, combined with an approach stressing student choice and academic specialization produced superior results. Interchange the words China or Japan for Switzerland and you have the standard educational platform of the Republican Party today.
The Holy Grail of Education, the graduation rate, has declined over the years, cries the detractor of American education. But the figures published in the Digest of Education Statistics, supported by U.S. Department of Education, The National Center for Education Statistics, and the Annual Report of the Commissioners of Education do not bear this out. In 1939, only 29 percent of 18-year-old Americans were high school graduates; in 1940, only 50.8 percent; in 1950, only 59 percent and by 1960, this figure had grown to 69.5 percent. These figures reflected the number of 18 year olds in the population that had completed high school, both public and private.
Starting with the graduating class of 1970, there is a record of those entering and consequently graduating from public schools in America, and that percentage was 78. The percentage has hovered around the mid to low seventies since. However, the graduation rate for American high schools in 2013 was over 78 percent.
That brings me to the latest revelation of Pat Skorkowsky, the Superintendent of the Clark County School District. He has stated that the district raised its graduation rate from 62 to 72 percent. He further explained that it was mostly due to the fact that someone in the district learned to count.
As I read this, I thought of the old Marine Corps story about General Chesty Puller in Korea. The General was in contact with an observation post in advance of his position when a Republic of Korea forward observer radioed back, “The Chinese are coming.”
The General asked, “How many?”
“Oh! Many, many!” was the reply.
The General asked again and got the same reply.
The General then asked, “Is there an American Marine up there with you? If so put him on the line.”
When the young Marine got on the line the General asked, “Son, how many Chinese are coming?”
The Marine replied, “A whole outhouse load, General.”
Chesty replied, “Thank goodness someone up there can count.”
Thank goodness, Superintendent Skorkowsky found someone in the Clark County School District who can count. Unfortunately, he indicated a whole new office would be established to do the counting. One might think this could be done by merely having the registrars in each high school report students who leave and later ask for transcripts so they can enroll wherever they go. Apparently, up to this year any student who moved from the district was counted as a drop out.
Another rather interesting fact was, until very recently, early grads were counted as dropouts because they did not graduate with their class. At the local level that was corrected a few years ago, when MVHS graduation rate was calculated by the District to be 84 percent. This dropped the school from the district’s Five Star school list. The principal successfully defended his position that the 8-10 junior graduates should not be counted as dropouts and the school’s graduation rate was moved back into the high 90’s.
A person outside education may wonder why the Clark County School District would allow the graduation rate to be portrayed so dismally. However, those in or around the business understand that education is one of the few entities that rewards failure.
The worse a district or a school appears, the more money it is awarded. Federal grants do not go to successful schools. The successful school is at best ignored and at worst punished. Turn-around schools in the District receive millions of extra dollars. Administrators and teachers are removed from the unsuccessful schools and sent to successful schools. Successful administrator and teacher are uprooted and sent to the unsuccessful schools, believing they will be the magic bullet. The district is quick to point out that this in no way should reflect on the ability of those transferred. This makes one wonder if the district had left the administration and teachers intact and merely flooded the school with the turnaround funds, if the results would not be the same.
That is an issue for another day.
Thought of the week… It is Basic Management 101 that if you reward failure you are going to get more failure, and if you want success you should reward success. – Chris Van Hollen
