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DEL.ICIO.USGrad Coaches: Do You Believe The Hype?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Late last week, Gov. Sonny Perdue spoke to 450 middle school graduation coaches at a summer training conference in Macon.
The men and women represent the first group of graduation coaches whose job will be to prepare sixth, seventh and eighth-graders for success in high school and beyond.
You may recall that Perdue created the graduation coach position (originally called “completion counselors”) as part of his 2006 election-year education agenda. Initially, the program was only for high school students. But during the campaign Perdue said the initiative was so successful (although it was barely two months old) that he vowed to extend it to middle schools if re-elected.
Earlier this year, Perdue made good on that promise by setting aside $18 million to expand the program for the coming school year. Now we have one graduation coach for every public middle school in Georgia.
Perdue and his staff have been talking up this program from the get-go, and Friday’s press release about the governor’s appearance in Macon was no exception.
According to the release, about 65 percent of the seniors helped by graduation coaches this year earned diplomas. That’s fewer than the 71 percent of the total senior class who graduated. But the governor’s scribes didn’t mention that.
Instead, they boasted that 65 percent was”higher than the graduation rate for all students in 2002.”
I found this statement a bit odd. So I called the governor’s press office to find out why they were comparing student performance this year to kids who graduated five years ago.
“We’re just pointing out that it’s a number that we think is a pretty positive step in the right direction,” Bert Brantley, one of the governor’s spokesmen, said. “We’re graduating more at-risk seniors than we did all students just five years ago.”
A valid comparison or just more graduation coach hype?
Comments
By thomas
July 30, 2007 8:09 AM | Link to this
No, I don’t believe the hype.
Grad coaches- a waste of time and money.
By Janine
July 30, 2007 8:32 AM | Link to this
What exactly do “graduation coaches ” do? What kind of training do they get? Which students , and how many, are assigned to each? I have a colleague who was displaced in the middle school in which she had been a couselor for many years . Two weeks before school started last year, she was notified that she had been assigned to a high school as “graduation coach”. She went to 2 days of meetings /training and was then thrown in. Is this just more smoke and mirrors?
By Jeff
July 30, 2007 9:12 AM | Link to this
thomas:
AMEN!!!
Janine:
YES
By em
July 30, 2007 9:51 AM | Link to this
I want to be a graduation coach. I’d get to walk the halls during the school day, interrupt instruction to pull these “at-risk” kids out of class for “counseling,” tell teachers “what they are doing wrong,” send memos to teachers mandating that certain students will be allowed to make-up any and all missed assignments and all failed exams, and, the biggest reason, make more money than the average teacher.
By SET
July 30, 2007 10:31 AM | Link to this
This is just Educrat Realspeak for “Counselors”.
Another example of lies and gameplaying in our public schools. Nothing is going to change in these nuthouses until the Educrats deal with reality and revert the “schools” back to tried and true tactics for learning. Discipline, tracking, more discipline, and letting the teachers teach.
By Tony
July 30, 2007 10:36 AM | Link to this
OK people it’s time for a wake-up call. One of the harsh realities is that Gov. Perdue made the right call on this one. More than anything else, the the kids who are at-risk of not graduating need strong relationships within the school in order to make it. The graduation coaches provide not only the relationship that is needed, but expert counsel and advice for the student and the family.
Second, graduation coaches do not make any more than teachers. They are on the same salary schedule. Some school systems may add a little more to the supplement, but it would not be that significant.
By luvs2teach
July 30, 2007 10:45 AM | Link to this
My kids had two graduation coaches…
Their dad & me…
(and more if you count aunts, uncles, grandparents and family friends)
By Jeff
July 30, 2007 10:49 AM | Link to this
Tony:
Up the mandatory age to 18. Fund cops to be ULTRA stringent on truancy (and make laws accordingly).
HS grads (and/ or GEDs) will SOAR, at a FRACTION of the cost of this program.
Government should spend LESS money, not more.
By Janine
July 30, 2007 10:50 AM | Link to this
Tony…..in my system, counselors [which is the designation of graduation coaches] are on a totally different salary schedule, and I believe that is a state schedule.
also…RE:“The graduation coaches provide…. expert counsel and advice for the student and the family.”, that was one of my questions, how much and what kind of training made them experts?
By Jeff
July 30, 2007 10:55 AM | Link to this
l2t:
EXACTLY.
Boot to tail is a VERY good incentive program…
By dr
July 30, 2007 11:05 AM | Link to this
Janine, as a counselor, I can tell you that in my system, counselors are paid on the same salary schedule as teachers. There is no such thing as a state counselor salary schedule. It varies depending on the school system, and most in the metro area, with the exception of maybe 2 systems, pay counselors on the same schedule as teachers.
By Lisa B.
July 30, 2007 11:36 AM | Link to this
I must agree with Tony’s 10:36 A.M. post. Like luvs2teach, I had TWO graduation coaches as well. My parents. Unfortunately, many of today’s high school dropouts do not have that support system at home. High school dropouts negatively impact out economy. This is one of those situations where the expense of preventation saves huge amounts of money later. That being said, I realize some schools will have terrific graduation coaches, and some schools won’t. I just know we MUST do something to increase the high school graduation rate, and graduation coaches sound like something that will help at least some kids who may otherwise dropout.
By Tony
July 30, 2007 11:57 AM | Link to this
Jeff-you suggest adding cops and enforcement will require court and detention facilities. I think prevention is much better (and less expensive) than enforcement.
By Erica
July 30, 2007 12:05 PM | Link to this
Hmmmmm…. permits to have children would be much cheaper. Parents are the only truly effective graduation coaches. There are too many sperm/egg donors and too few real parents in this country.
You need a permit to fish…. there are age limits on voting and driving… but you can hatch a little thug anytime you please.
By SET
July 30, 2007 12:15 PM | Link to this
A better incentive to stay in school is to reinstate the draft (co-ed this time) - and end mandatory schooling at 16.
I believe such conditions would improve student teacher relations. And the counselors would be more welcome as well.
By Jeff
July 30, 2007 12:17 PM | Link to this
Tony:
There are other - in many cases, FAR more repulsive to teenagers - methods to use to punish truancy. For example, one which we already use up to 16: no driver’s liscence if you can’t verify less than x number of abscences in y days. Extend that law to 18, but make it even tougher, such as no liscence if 2 UNEX abscences in the past 2 yrs, and no more than 3 tardies.
A) You would have parental support - once you showed them you wouldn’t budge - because they want their kid to have a liscence as much as the kid wants one.
B) Kids HATE riding the bus and/ or parents bringing them to school, so this FORCES them to be in school or suffer said fate.
And actually, with said mods, you wouldn’t even need to hire ANY extra people - it is a function already done in every HS in the state…
By em
July 30, 2007 12:23 PM | Link to this
Maybe there needs to be uniformity. At my school, the graduation coach has the same rank, pay, and privileges as an assistant principal.
By linda
July 30, 2007 12:37 PM | Link to this
I think the draft in the 60’s started the grade inflation and lowering of standards we have now so I don’t want to see that tied to graduation. Anyone should be able to quit school at any time, but if they cannot provide a plan for self-sufficiency they should be given one and made to deal with it until they can come up with something better. That should go for graduates as well.
By Lisa B.
July 30, 2007 1:21 PM | Link to this
Jeff, when our Legislature imposed mandatory driver’s ed at a time when few schools offer the course, the state essentially took away the chance for some kids to get driver’s liscences anyway. Many parents cannot afford to pay for private driving schools for their children. I think many kids already see driving and car ownership as something impossible to attain anyway. Losing that privilege, for some kids, isn’t really a punishment. They aren’t driving anyway.
By SET
July 30, 2007 2:44 PM | Link to this
Jeff: I have a problem with restricting occupational licenses from “students” who won’t stay in politically correct public school nuthouses. A driver’s license is an occupational license in CA. You have to have one to get decent work. (It’s mandatory for even temp government work - like temp gardener.)
DMV is already toughened up driver’s licensing to the point that most black males in the 18 to 30 range (around here) can’t keep one. Adding your suggested bars for not attending a (worthess?) school is going too far. If a person can pass the literacy, etc tests at DMV - which is not a easy as it once was - they should be allowed to drive a vehicle in employment. No need to check a school transcript.
Our CA public schools no longer teach for proletariat jobs. Of course people walk out of these schools “prematurely”. That doesn’t mean that the dropouts are all malicious. Some of them drop out to go to work. That’s been going on for 100 years. What you suggest seems intended to make these people prisoners of the public school system - more so than they are already. I disagree.
By Jeff
July 30, 2007 3:05 PM | Link to this
SET:
As I’ve said so often recently:
You may disagree with my ideas, but at least I am putting ideas out there. You think what I’m proposing won’t work? Fine. Throw out another idea and we’ll discuss its merits and pitfalls. The only idea I reject at face value is the status quo, because the status quo has already proven to be a FAILURE.
By PJ
July 30, 2007 4:04 PM | Link to this
EM, your first post was right on the money. You know the drill.
By SET
July 30, 2007 4:24 PM | Link to this
Jeff: You must have forgotten my usual posts - I try not to repeat the exact same point daily.
Our schools are failure factories because they treat all the students as the same. The academic programs are not tracked. The schools (with help from the courts) even refuse to IQ test - Although you can easily figure IQ range by proxies anyway.
Students have a range of reasonable placements which range from jail/state hospital, work or college. Only a small percentage of public school kids are (4 year) college material. Trying to handle all 3 groups in the same classroom produces - what we see now.
Our public schools need to provide the 3 groups different programs on different campuses - allowing students to transfer up or down depending of performance. People do not walk out/drop out of programs that actually serve their needs.
Any thought of punishing an IQ 88 student because he or she won’t function in a program that requires an IQ of 100 to barely pass is irrational. Your sugestion to tie driver’s licenses to performance in the current one-size-fits-all schools sounded irrational to me.
A substantial percentage of our CA public school students will never finish college and will eke out a living in closely supervised jobs relying mainly on physical labor - or will be baby mamas. They will be vulnerable to automation and replacement by illegal colonists. Others will suffer premature death or institutionalization.
I don’t believe our schools are doing enough to give these people a decent chance in the world. Starting by spoiling them so badly that they cannot speak or write standard English and deport themselves well enough to get and hold jobs or be accepted into the military. Our CA schools used to do this prior to 1965.
My idea is to roll back the clock to tactics that worked in the past. Discipline, Tracking, Segregation by performance and vocational high schools.
By fed up
July 30, 2007 4:41 PM | Link to this
SET, as usual… is right on.
By thomas
July 30, 2007 5:10 PM | Link to this
Em’s right. That’s about all a “graduation coach” would do anyway. Heck, I would want to be one too, versus a regular teacher.
Again, another waste of time, money, resources, and personnel. I think it’s just another Sonny PR stunt. Personally, I like Sonny’s PR stunts myself. I’ve been enjoying the h_ out of his last one. I think I get a get just a little more fun out of it before it’s over. :) HE GETS MY VOTE EVERYTIME!!!!
By catlady
July 31, 2007 11:24 AM | Link to this
I am not a big fan of graduation coaches at any level, either. There are things that keep kids in school, and one of them HAS been found to be an identification with a mentor, but I don’t see how a “coach” for 1200 kids can be much of a mentor to anyone. It sounds great, but there is a law of diminishing returns at work here. Parents have the ideal opportunity, since they (presumably) don’t have hundreds of kids to push through school. Like everything else, however, let us turn it over to the schools, and blame them when the student dropped out (too many tests! Too much homework! Wants to play sports! No time for socializing in the halls! “Had” to work! Bored! Unfair grading! Blah blah blah!) Many of our students sound like Cheney during Vietnam—they have other priorities.
By Lisa B.
July 31, 2007 2:43 PM | Link to this
Catlady,
It’s my understanding that the grad coaches in my system’s schools will each pick 60 students to “coach.” Evidently these kids are some that CAN do the coursework, but are endanger of getting side-tracked by socio-economic class, poor homelife, etc. It it works, it will be great. If even a few children can be saved each year from dropping out, over time, that will make a difference.
I am ever the optimist.
By distorted
July 31, 2007 3:27 PM | Link to this
The graduation coach at my school came to me just three weeks before the end of school and graduation to let me know I was teaching some of his students. They were failing. He wanted me come up with a way to “help” them graduate. These students were not passing when the coach had this conference with me. I have a problem with this type of coaching. I was getting the coaching instead of the students.
By Lee
July 31, 2007 6:05 PM | Link to this
Graduation coach, counselor, what’s the difference?
Should we even care that a certain percentage of students drop out? I don’t.
The way I look at it, if an illegal alien can come to this country with no education, can’t speak a lick of English, and can make a living, surely someone who attended the “best educational system in the world” until the 10th grade can make a living. Right?
If a kid doesn’t want to stay in school, why force him to sit there and disrupt the remainder of students who are actually trying to get an education. What schools should be doing is to help these students get their GED’s and get them out the door.
By the end of the 8th grade, a student should have attained enough knowledge to allow them to be a fully functioning member of society. They should know how to read. They should know how to do basic math. They should be able to write simple, coherent sentences. There are a ton of jobs out there in which this is all you need.
Give’m their GED and wish them the best of luck.
But no, our educrats want to force them to stay in school and complete a “college prep” curriculum.
The old saying about forcing a square peg into a round hole comes to mind.
By catlady
July 31, 2007 7:20 PM | Link to this
It’s my understanding that the grad coaches in my system’s schools will each pick 60 students to “coach.”
Okay, a 1:60 ratio. Still not too good. And for a high school graduating say, 60%, just how much help will that be? My high school, a small one, has 1400 students. So 60 of them get this “help,” but 800 are at risk. Seems like a chance for a political pay-off or coach’s salary to me……