Mover Mike

On the front page of The Oregonian is a map of Metro area high school graduation rates. The map shows the schools with the 10 best graduation rates and the schools with the 10 worst graduation rates. The Portland Public School District (PPSD) has no schools in the top ten, but it does have eight schools in the bottom ten. Looking at the map, if you are a family with young kids, you sure don't want to live on the East side and probably don't want to live in the PPSD on the West side.

Century High''s dropout rate is down to 1% and several strategies seem made for a small school.

• Monitor teens constantly and step in early at the first sign of trouble.
• Reach out to families with help even therapy
• Put freshmen into intensive reading classes if needed
• Make it easy for students to catch up on credits

Yet in Portland, the smaller schools have the worst dropout records. The spokespersons for the schools just seem to have excuses for their failure:

• But graduation rates have been falling at BizTech and ACT for the past two years as students adjusted to the transition from a large, comprehensive high school to smaller schools.

  (Shouldn't the smaller schools be able to monitor students better?)

• Under the federal No Child Left Behind law, students at schools that don't meet federal benchmarks in math and reading have the option to transfer to a higher-achieving school.

  The exodus left Marshall and Roosevelt with "a harder population to teach, a population with more academic challenges," she said. "We've done a good job with some students getting them closer to standards."

  (Shouldn't the smaller schools be able to reach students better?)

• Marshall and Roosevelt are among 38 small schools across Oregon that have received grants from the Gates Foundation and the Meyer Memorial Trust. The money promotes a philosophy that students will feel more motivated to stay in class and graduate if they're in an intimate setting and make a personal connection with teachers.

  Graduation rates are falling for the last two years. Where's the sense of urgency?

If you look at Direct classroom spending per student in the Metro area, you'll find that Beaverton spends $4,417; Canby $4,181; Centennial $4,738; Corbett $4,273; David Douglas $4,701; Estacada $ 4,604; Eugene $4,564; Forest Grove $5,002; Hillsboro $4,192; Lake Oswego $3,981; Parkrose $4,826 and Portland spends $5,218 per student.

We are not getting our money's worth!