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Friday, March 30, 2007
Raising Graduation Rates: How Daunting Is It?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At the state Teacher of the Year banquet last night, State Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox told the honored teachers she needed their help in lifting Georgia’s high school graduation rate.
“We’ve got a stretch goal,” she said. “I want everyone to remember this number: We’re at 70 percent now, we’re going to be at 85 percent by 2010. So we are ramping up and we’re going to hit that target.
“Are you with me, teachers?”
The response? Some tepid applause and one, “Yes!”
It wasn’t clear to me whether the audience wasn’t listening or the educators were skeptical they could raise the graduation rate by 15 percentage points in three years.
The teacher I sat next to, himself a former state Teacher of the Year, later said he was glad to hear the superintendent raising the expectations for getting students through school.
Still, he said of the goal: “It’s daunting.”
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