[Posted Nov. 9, 2007]

Part 1:
Study Cites Norfolk On Low
Black Male Drop Out Rate

By Leonard E. Colvin
Chief Reporter
New Journal & Guide
 
       A recent Shott Foundation study ranked Norfolk as No. 61 (out of 64 public school districts) when it comes to graduating African American males. Norfolk beat out Detroit, New Orleans and Indianapolis for its position at the lower end of the scale.
The Foundation studied public school districts with 10,000 or more African American students. Foundation researcher Michael Holtsman estimated that Norfolk graduates about 27 percent of its African American males enrolled in grade 12.
 But Norfolk Public Schools (NPS) officials disagree with the finding. They say they have devised a plan which more accurately tracks the number of  students it loses from  the freshmen to senior years (9-12), including those students in special education programs.
        NPS says that it is bolstering its efforts to retain all of its students and reduce the dropout rates with a $5 million dollar grant to accelerate its efforts in adopting strategies, similar to those adopted by John Hopkins University.
        Some proposed changes include more planning time for teachers, according to an Oct. 31 NPS press release. English, reading and math instruction will be increased. Reading instruction will become more intensive.

There will be more freshmen success programs and seminar classes, “aimed at improving a ninth grader’s transition to high school, integrated curricula and cared recovery programs.”
       The NPS programs would also include more accountability for classroom teachers and the principals who supervise them. 
Plans also call for increasing the number of prekindergarten classes, and students completing Algebra I by the end of eighth grade. More accelerated programs are planned for students who are over the age of the grade they are attending.

       The press release also says that NPS  believes that “just as important, we are focusing a great deal of effort on early childhood education and students reading on grade level by grade one and every grade thereafter. We know this early investment is paying tremendous dividends.”
Elsewhere, Norfolk Public Schools has been deemed one of the most efficient majority-minority school divisions in the nation. But despite its success and public relations effort, African Americans males and low incomes black females are more likely not to graduate.
       NPS also made another recent list which tracks graduation rates among African American males.  John Hopkins University called 1700 of the nation’s high schools “Dropout Factories” because only 60 percent of the districts’ freshmen go on to graduate.
  Of the 22 schools which fit the “Dropout Factory” title in Virginia, five were in Norfolk; this means all of its high schools.
       “The John Hopkins study oversimplifies the calculations of graduation rates by focusing only on enrollment, ignoring the issue of student mobility (including military) discounting graduates who take more or less than fours yeas to complete his/her diploma,” according to an online Oct. 31 John Hopkins University press release.  
Norfolk Public Schools, however, in an online press release dated Oct. 31, said 78 percent of its freshmen graduate from high school.
       But the various press releases did not specifically address high-dropout and low-graduation rates for African American males in the school’s population.
As researchers have studied the issue nationwide, some politicians, including Virginia Democratic Congressmen Robert “Bobby” Scott, have proposed legislation.
       Civil Right organizations like the NAACP have been addressing the issue, as one of the barriers facing African American men in general who are seeking reliable employment in the job market.
       Recently, Virginia Beach Schools (VBPS) released “goals” which are designed to increase graduation rates and the achievement gap among African American males. The new plan also addresses disproportionate expulsions from the classroom, assignments in advanced classes, and alternative education programs.
  VBPS reports a 57 percent graduation rate among black males, possibly because of the “freshman bubble” which is cited in the John Hopkins study?
       These are ninth-grade students who do not earn a certain number of credits and are then classified as a ninth grader for a second time.
This means the freshmen class will have an enrollment figure that is higher than other classes.

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