Let's encourage at-risk kids to get real diplomas, not meaningless feel-good certificates.

NEWS AND COMMENTARY inside — and outside — the dropout nation. Updates and new stories added throughout the day are marked with an *asterisk:

• The definition of insanity: School districts in Fort Bend, Texas, Houston, Saginaw, Mich., and Munster, Ind., are teaming up with local prosecutors and police departments to combat chronic truancy. Parents will be charged and fine for not keeping track of their children’s attendance while the kids themselves will be picked up. This isn’t a new tactic. The evidence that the sweep-and-fine method actually works to keep kids in school and gets them back on track towards graduation, however, remains elusive. More importantly, such programs don’t address one of the main reasons behind truancy: The low academic performance and lack of educational engagement (caused by not-so-rigorous curricula) of the children who often chronically skip school. Children realize their low academic performance even if they are getting promoted from grade to grade despite their low grades.
• The meaning of irresponsibility: The Senatobia School District in Mississippi — a state with an unbelievably awful record of academic failure — decided that it was time to offer General Education Development classes that will target 16-year-olds, according to The Democrat of Tate County. Yes, a school district decided to target teenagers that should be in school. Why gee whiz, why not simply offer the students free prison cells, liquor and Food Stamps at the same time. The school district should be finding ways to keep the 16-year-olds in school and on the path to graduation, not letting them drop out.
• Sadly, despite evidence that GEDs aren’t anywhere equivalent to a regular high school diploma, newspapers are reporting far too many feel-good stories about adults picking up one. One wonders if editors and reporters actually think these things through. Wait, I know far too well that they don’t.
• More Core Knowledge: Richard Whitmire reveals that the school reform outfit is unveiling a reading program and laments the end of Reading First.
• Kevin Carey reads Paul Tough’s piece on education reform in New Orleans and learns that, when it comes to parental involvement, schools need to be focused on that thing called parental engagement. Essentially, if schools want parents to get involved in student learning, they must also provide various levers by which they can be engaged.
• From where I sit, I also say that traditional public schools, public charters and private schools must also be willing to accept the reality that parents must be involved in education beyond just helping kids with the homework. Given the role that instructional methods can play in student learning and the reality that it is, at times, too easy for minority students to land in special education programs or not get into gifted programs, parents must also be actively involved in structuring how their children will learn. This won’t make administrators or teachers — the self-appointed experts in education — very happy. But it is key to stemming dropouts and gaining more involvement from parents.
• *Math teacher shortages, Volume XXX: California is making an ambitious — and frankly, overdue — move to require all 8th graders to learn beginning Algebra. For students — especially those who are not slated for the honors track that leads to college admission — such rigorous math work will help them gain the knowledge they need to get into whatever higher education option (be it college or trade programs) they choose upon graduation. Making the plan come into reality, however, is a problem because of a shortage of math teachers, notes the Sacramento Bee, a common problem throughout the nation. One possible solution should be alternative certification for mid-career professionals who want to get into teaching, but can’t afford to spend two-to-four years in ed school. Another is to finally begin offering higher pay for math and science positions; although it won’t lure all the math and science collegians into teaching — largely because the pay will still be lower than the incomes they can make in the tech sector and the reality that teaching is a harder job than most think it is — it will help alleviate those shortages. Attracting foreign math students and teachers into the profession through the use of skilled worker visas will also help; this is a reason why H-1B and other skilled immigration quotas should be increased or eliminated altogether.