SchoolingHigh-schoolers Fail Third Of Key Courses
Truancy and failing courses is linked.
The Milwaukee Sentinel, November 2, 1990.
Gretchen Schult
11/2/1990
Milwaukee public high school students got Fs in more than a third of their math, science and social studies courses last semester, with students attending school less than 80% of the time accounting for many of the failures, figures show.
Overall, students received Fs in about 43% of their math courses, 36% of their science courses, 35% of their social studies courses and 31% of their English courses, Milwaukee Public Schools figures show.
But, for those who missed school more than one out of every five days of class, the failure percentages were 75% for math, 70% for science, 65% for social studies, and 60% for English.
The percentage of failures for those who attended classes at least 80% of the time were 20% for math, 12% for science, 11% for social studies, and 9% for English, the figures show.
Attendance rates lower than 80% were recorded in 41% to 44% of the courses in each of the four subject categories.
The high school attendance rate for 1989-'90 was 81% and had been decline in recent years.
"It's obvious that attendance does make a difference and that's why the board has made attendance a top priority this year," School Board President Jeanette Mitchell said. "If a student is not coming to school, then he's not able to learn."
The figures also show that "what is happening in the classroom when a student does come to school is positive and we must continue to make it better," she said.
"This will take the support of parents, parent advocates, schools, and the community," Mitchell said.
The district is working on curriculum reform, including the development of a multicultural curriculum, to meet student needs, she said. The district also is trying to develop more alternative educations programs and to encourage new teaching methods.
"We're looking to provide what the students need," she said. "Whether we're going to reach every child considering today's environment - that's questionable. But we're going to do our very best for the kids who are willing to come to school."
William H. Richards, a research associate with the Public Policy Forum, said he didn't think attendance was the overall answer to the problem.
Schools need to look at why students are falling and why they are not attending classes, he said.
"Finding ways to keep kids in school is very worthwhile," Richards said. "There's no question about that at all. There's a lot of different people who share responsibility for achieving that. Some of them are in classes and some of them are not. Some of them are teachers and some of them are not teachers."
There is a theory that holds that if attendance is increased in the short run, short-term achievement will fall, he said. It will take some time for the students to become engaged in the curriculum and the downwards trend to be reversed, he said.
The district's figures also show that:
The failure rate was 38% for freshman, 34% for sophom*ores, 29% for juniors and 17% for seniors.
Jean Tyler, executive director of the Public Policy Forum, said the decreasing failure rates probably reflected unsuccessful students dropping out of school.
Freshman absent more than 1 of 5 days failed 82% of their math courses, while those with an 80% attendance rate failed 22%. Overall, freshmen failed 48% of their math courses, the highest overall failure rate in any grade for the four subjects considered.
Students attending school at least 80% of the time achieved above 2.0 grade point in all but 2 of 21 subject areas: health education (1.87) and math (1.77). Those who attended less than 80% of the time earned a grade point above 1.0 only in music (1.37).
In almost all instances, first-semester failure rates were lower than the second-semester rates and the overall failure rate was 29% for the first semester and 32% for the second.
The overall grade point average for the first semester was 1.64 and for the second semester, 1.55.
