Date: Thu, Oct. 19, 2006

Resource: Daily Herald

His story: From 'A & B student' to quitting school

TAKE A LOOK at Michael Knight's life. Somewhere among its twists and turns, there could be a better understanding of Philadelphia's high-school-dropout crisis.

Knight said he had been an eager "A and B student" who "went to school all the time" at Thomas Middle School in South Philly.

And then ninth grade happened.

He had family problems at home. He cut school regularly. He "fooled around too much," and eventually had to repeat his freshman year.

Knight tried to get back on track.

But then his girlfriend got pregnant. And though the baby wasn't due until November, Knight said all he could think was:

"I can't let him come into this world and not have anything to offer."

In January of 10th grade, he dropped out to work in a restaurant. Now 22 and living in North Philadelphia with his girlfriend and their 3-year-old son, Knight should have been part of the Class of 2001.

Michael Knight's name won't be found in a significant new study being released today on the depth, causes - and potential prevention - of dropouts from the city's public schools.

But Knight's many details of his life are echoed in the numbers and data compiled by a pair of research scientists in "Unfulfilled Promise: The Dimensions and Characteristics of Philadelphia's Dropout Crisis, 2000-2005."

About half of the city's ninth-graders graduate on time in four years, according to the dropout study, which was commissioned by the Philadelphia Youth Transitions Collaborative.

Measured in a more realistic way, just under 60 percent - the actual figure has ranged in recent years from 54 percent to 58 percent - of city public-school students manage to graduate within six years.


Dropout rates by neighborhood That puts the city's dropout rate at about 40 percent.

The study also found that each year more than 8,200 young people in grades 6 through 12 - enough to fill six high schools - drop out of school.

But within those numbers is a wealth of detail, including far worse numbers for different groups of students:

• The study found that dropouts were most likely to have left the city's neighborhood high schools and disciplinary schools, as compared to "magnet" schools - which have special admission criteria - or vocational schools.

About 13 percent of students at neighborhood high schools dropped out during the 2003-04 school year. That compares to only 2.9 percent of students at vocational schools and less than 1 percent of students at magnet schools who dropped out that year.

• On average, only 40 percent of Latino males in the study earned a high-school diploma within six years. About half of both African-American and white males earned diplomas. And 65 percent of Asian males did so.

• Among female students, about 50 percent of Latinas graduated within six years, as did 65 percent of African-American and white female students, and 75 percent of Asian female students.

No matter how it is measured, the dropout rate is too high.

"A 21st-century city just can't keep going on with a public-school dropout rate like this," said Ruth Curran Neild, one of the authors of the study.

Paul Vallas, the school district's chief executive, yesterday called the problem "solvable," but warned, "It's going to take an additional commitment of resources."

Vallas said the district already has started some programs on a limited basis that can help students graduate: alternative schools for "overaged" students and programs like Gateway to College, which allows dropouts to get their high-school diplomas while working toward a degree at Community College of Philadelphia.

And even though the study found that graduation rates have inched upward in recent years, Vallas said the numbers "are still depressingly low."

The study also discovered that it is possible to predict which kids are likely to drop out of school.

More than half of eventual dropouts can be identified even before they start high school. The majority of dropouts failed English or math courses in middle school, or attended school less than 80 percent of the time.

The study also breaks down some myths about dropouts.

A few students drop out because they simply aren't interested in education, the study found. But many more don't fit that stereotype.

Some students drop out because of a family crisis, leaving school for work to help take care of relatives. Some young women drop out after becoming pregnant. Others drop out after academic failures, feeling too old compared to younger classmates. Still others drop out because they don't feel safe at school or in their neighborhoods.

In Knight's case, he said the freedom of a new school played a big role. He moved in with his grandmother as he started Martin Luther King High School, but he said she worked several nights a week - and even during the school day, the school was so large that there were many ways to sneak out.

Plus, at King, he found friends from South Philadelphia with whom he could cut school.

He said he had not been acting wild, or been in a lot of fights.

"What messed me up was too much freedom," he said. "I wasn't used to the freedom of high school compared to middle school."

In fact, the study found that one reason students gave for dropping out was a feeling that school officials didn't care, and didn't miss the students when they were gone.

Despite that, researchers found that many of the students who had dropped out still care about getting an education. And they care about their futures.

Knight is working to establish both music-production and record-label businesses.

Earlier this month he began a job-readiness program at Metropolitan Career Center, a job training program with offices in Center City and Germantown.

"I have my business," Knight said. "But I need something to help me in the long run.

"This is teaching me about professional business etiquette and how to dress for a job interview and how to speak in public."

He said he wants to earn his GED and eventually start college.

That kind of ambition is why today is about more than lamenting the dropout crisis, said Laura Shubilla, president of the Philadelphia Youth Network, the lead organization behind the Youth Collaborative.

A companion report, called "Turning It Around," that's also being released today offers ways to help other Michael Knights stay in - or reconnect to - school.

With it, the collaborative is announcing "Project U-Turn," an effort to bring a broad-based coalition of educators, public officials, business and community leaders and parents together to solve the dropout crisis.

There's a dollars-and-cents argument to be made for involving other agencies and even businesses: According to the study's researchers, dropouts have lower-paying or no jobs, return less in tax revenue to governments, cost more in social services and crime, and can begin generations of poverty.

The research released today said dropouts represent a loss to the economy of more than $2 billion.

So far, reaction to both the report - despite the high numbers it contains - and to the companion suggestions has been positive.

Shubilla praised the study, by co-authors Neild and Robert Balfanz, both now at Johns Hopkins University, as "the first of its kind in the country."

The authors employed a system designed by the University of Pennsylvania that allowed them to look at "an integrated set of data" from the school district, Family Court and child-welfare records. Neild was teaching at the University of Pennsylvania when she began the study.

Shelly Yanoff, executive director of Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth, a partner in the collaborative, said the reports today are the result of a two-year collaboration.

"People have come together from different organizations inside and outside of government and said, 'We can and will change things,' " Yanoff said. "We can decrease the number of dropouts."