I agree with LazyJay. What the heck happenned to traditional High School? Why are there all the alternatives in this town. We lived on the East Coast and our kids went to a very good high school, and I think they started both of the freshman classes with somewhere near 600 kids and graduated just over 500.

We thought that was poor........Are you kidding me with those numbers? 1100 kids and only 600 got traditional high school diplomas. That can't be right. There is no way. This community would have severe economic woes on the horizon if that was the case.

Do you realize that high school dropouts cost this country hundreds of millions of dollars in lost income taxes. It'sproven that our jails and prisons are filled with people that didn't complete high school.

If these numbers are correct, then that is absolutely pathetic. I had no idea VISD was in such bad shape. What in the world is the problem?

mytwocents...........I never said "Dropout rate", I said graduation rate.

And no I am not counting the kids who walked the stage but didn't pass all portions of the TAKS test and had to come back in the summer take a test and hope to be counted as official graduates.

I am not talking about a GED, that's not graduating with a traditional High School Diploma.

I'm not talking about kids who leave for Profit and certainly not kids who spend 5 and 6 years in High School.

I am referring to actual students who began as Freshman (about 1100 kids), stayed at Memorial High School for the traditional 4 years of High School, completed their course work all at Memorial High School, and graduated with a traditional High School Diploma like most of us did.

If you truly and honestly do the math for those who completed the traditional 4 years of High School all the while attending Memorial High School then the math is right, around 55-56 % for actual graduates who started school as freshman and graduated 4 years later at MHS.

I was fairly accurate in my estimation......... you proved it with your math.

But neither here nor there, it is pretty pathetic, and a 90% graduation rate, to me, is unacceptable. Let alone 50-60%.

Sad.

Hell,that been going around forever at Texas A&M.

Ah ok, I can follow that. Thanks.

But the explanation begs more questions. Is the 66% figure a simple calculation of x number of freshmen enrolled divided by x number of seniors graduated four years later? What about transfers in and out? If Johnnie transfers in and Mary out, is it a wash?

What if Mary transfers in but Johnnie stays for the duration? Would that skew the results? If so, it would then seem that if the city enjoyed a booming economy in the four intervening years, the school district would get an undeserved boost in its stats simply by virtue of the district growth.

Again, it seems to me that, depending on the side one comes down on, there's a decision to be made regarding which statistic to cite and just how clearly to define its parameters. I tend to judge the effectiveness of the education system by the calibre of its recently successful graduates. Granted, that's a small sampling but I think I deal with a pretty representative cross section of the populace.

Perhaps when I give the cashier at Whattaburger $10.39 for a $5.39 tab and he/she has to get a calculator to figure my change then proceeds to give me five $1 bills back (real story), I shouldn't expect too much. I mean, like, working at Whattaburger likely doesn't require a Ph.D. in, like, math, Dude.

But when I see college grads who can't construct and punctuate a proper sentence, it's not good news.

Ernie

"I assume the admin. wasn't even aware this was happening"
How much ya wanna bet?¿?

Ms. Carrie-
your awareness is applauded imo. Now you must write a formal complaint to that principal at that campus otherwise it goes to deaf selective ears. They will review the issue. I agree w/ you and I assume the admin. wasn't even aware this was happening. Make a 2nd complaint if you are not satisfied. Its a simple fix. Remember its not finger pointing but a resolve. let us how it went. pleeez.

email the watchdog group thingy (or maybe they will initiate a policy review) the vicad started as well.

I wholly agree, Observer. It appears to me that sports and, to a lesser degree, other "extracurricular" activites have become the end-all, be-all for our schools' existence. We've all seen the English language bastardized to the point that words come to mean their exact opposite. (That's soooo ba-a-a-d! for example.) Perhaps this is the first time the activity was bastardized to mean the opposite of the word; sports have become the curricula and learning the extra-curricular!

I too, played at sports (badly) in HS and the playing field is a great place to learn some valuable concepts; playing by the rules, sportsmanship, and probably most important, how to both win AND lose gracefully. But as you say, the extracurricular activities are a privilege, not a right. Nor should they be the students' primary pursuit.

I think you're correct. The emphasis in public education should be on getting a quality education. Anything less than a reasonably quantified "C" in ANY class should disqualify ANY student for ANY privilege until the minimum criteria is met. 'Nuff said.

Why is it we practically demand that our kids excel on the playing field, too often by any means necessary, but accept substandard effort and results in their academic fitness?

Ernie

Ernie,

I think you missed the point of this post. Why should athletes get a "free pass" to not produce acceptable levels of grades? When I attended VISD and graduated from VHS over 30 years ago those who wanted to get into accelerated courses had to work harder and prove they could do the work. My senior year we had a group that approached the admin to add a secound year of physics because a small group of us had taken every accerlerated science and math course available and we needed another course to challenge us. It appears now the admin has made a way for athletes to bypass the system entirely by taking AP courses. What a waste of the teachers (and other students) time to have to put up with students who are more focused on sports then academics. There is nothing wrong with sports (I played in high school) but it is a privlege to participate in extracurricular, not a right.

As to the statistics comment, I agree completely. You can take a set of statistics and manipulate them to support just about any position you want. How are the numbers gathered that are referenced below? I would suspect the district supplies the information and they are going to manipulate the data in their favor. It happens all the time with schools and other organizations. Make the data support your position by manipulating the way it is reported. Athletes, drill and dance team, cheerleaders and other extracurricular participants should have one academic standard, not one that is changed to fit each situation. We, collectively parents, educators and admin, are not doing these people a favor by letting them slide by.

I'm not following, twocents. If the actual graduation rate for VISD in '07 was 66.1% wouldn't that leave the actual dropout rate at 38.9%, not the "actual 20%" as you stated in the next paragraph?

I'm a pretty firm believer that if one analyzes any set of statistics enough, he can get them to prove just about anything but we have to admit too that tracking these statistics really accurately would be a nightmare. How is VISD to know that a kid who transferred out of the district and enrolled in AR did or didn't attend there?

Finally, we act as though it's VISD's fault that our kids don't stay in school and actually learn something while there. I'm sure there may be some validity to that argument but let's face facts; it's not (or shouldn't be) their job to go around hog-tying our kids to get them to school. If the parents haven't taught them some responsibility, respect for rules and instilled an adequate value system in their kids before they set foot in a classroom, there's little hope they'll learn those things in any school regardless of how great it is.

Ernie

Here is the problem. There is no person up to date w/ student athlete guidelines. They use thier interpretation back when they played.

As for AP, placement, or dual credit classes they are exempt. BUT BUT...the isd MUST notify tea/uil of those classes. Also, Tx Edu Board is developing a list only acceptable classes because isd's develop differ stds. for a subject.

Most isd's give you a curve. 2-3 points for general core classes and 5 pts. for AP classes. But if the child misses tons of class or work and the teacher, counselor and principal say no then the coach steps in. Yep, you guessed it.

If the school board, super. read this here is the solution...its easy...i will charge you nothing compared to the attorney you have. Ready - You have a written local policy stricter than the TEB. You have one place I know. HOW- You state if you fail 2 consective 6 wks (AP)that student athlete must sit out.

to boot...the board, super. must get educated on the grading system. Our pass or play is based on 70pts out of 100. All isd's fit this rule. But now those kids go to college and BAM! They use a letter grade and a 70 is a D. Thier gpa is lowered so thier aide is lowered. oh well.

AP classes are generally elective classes. Are those teachers in those classes teaching thier speciality or just printing out packets?!? good topic 'mam.

Victoria Advocate news department.

What about the statement that over 40% of the students in the 1,000 plus freshman class several years back DID NOT graduate from VISD. Is this accurate? This is something that needs to be investigated, which is what news reporting should be about. We, collectively the tax payers of Victoria, are spending $150MM on buildings while the students are getting left behind, not to mention the teachers are not getting paid enough. Advocate, give us the truth about these statistics.

I remember when VISD was tops in education. That was before the progressive clowns took over the schools.

Mrs. Rodriguez, thank you for pointing this out. Are you even remotely surprised? VISD in such dire straits to get kids too graduate they can't afford not to give kids grades. Their graduation levels are so low it's scary.
They will not tell the genral public that in a freshman class of what started out well over 1000 students 4 years ago, last year they only graduated 500 (and some change) of those kids. They dropped dang near half of the class that started as freshman.  And it's getting worse.
VISD is in big trouble and good families continue to bail out of this district like its on fire.  I too agree with your point, but VISD is a sinking ship and it needs to get back on track in a hurry.
These beautiful new school buildings are going to be empty because all the families that are able too, are taking off for good districts like Industrial, Cuero, and others. It's a sad, sad, sad state of affairs for the city, the kids of VISD and and our future.