Monday - September 28, 2009
Good morning!  Hope you had a great weekend!  I certainly had an enjoyable weekend in that Wyvonna and I traveled to Oklahoma to see two of our grandsons play football.  The oldest grandson is a 6th grader and the middle grandson is a 3rd grader.  They are participating in
Little League football, and I certainly enjoyed watching them.  We enjoyed visiting with our oldest son's family and our third grandson who is in 1st grade.  Let me tell you, they are a bundle of energy and the visit certainly kept us busy.  My son serves on the Board of Education in the town in which they live, so I still had to talk a little "education" with him.  I, as many of you, am so proud of my two sons, their families, and our grandkids.  It was a fun weekend!

I am looking forward to this week because this is the week our students will perform at the TASA/TASB Convention in Houston.  This is the annual combined meeting of the Texas Association of School Administrators and the Texas Association of School Boards, and it is probably the largest educational meeting in the state.  I know that James Miculka, Fine Arts Director, and his staff and many of our fine arts teachers have worked so hard to prepare our students for their presentation.  All of you saw a glimpse of the performance at our Convocations and I know the students will be great!  I do plan on getting a DVD of the performance and we will place it on our website for all to see.  I am very excited and so proud of our students and our schools.

I want to take a moment to congratulate Mandy Whitlock, Fine Arts Department Coordinator at Brandeis High School, on being named a winner of the ExCEL Award, sponsored by KENS-TV and the San Antonio Federal Credit Union.  Mandy was also named a districtwide Educator of the Year for 2009, and has been instrumental in the preparation of our students who will be performing in Houston this weekend.  Congratulations, Mandy!  We are very proud of you!

Today I do want to address an issue that has been on my mind.  Recently I was in a meeting where it was said that the media was reporting that San Antonio had a 35% dropout rate.  I constantly hear different figures used as to what the dropout rate is because so many different organizations or research institutions use different definitions and methodologies for calculating a dropout rate.  It is very frustrating to hear different figures used and what I do know and realize is that many organizations use the rate that they feel most justifies their position, sometimes politically.  School districts probably do the same thing, but it would certainly be advantageous if everyone used the same metric as far as dropout rate is concerned.

I do like the metric that TEA has established which is identified as Completion Rate, not Dropout Rate.  Completion Rate is a longitudinal rate which shows the percent of students who first attended grade 9 and have completed or are continuing their education four years later.  Known as a cohort, these students are tracked over the four years using data provided to TEA by districts and data available in the statewide General Educational Development (GED) database.  Generally the Completion Rate used by TEA does not count a student who gets a GED as a completer, but counts that student as a dropout.  To count as a "completer" a student must have received a high school diploma with his/her class or have enrolled in the subsequent fall as a continuing student.  A student who does not receive a diploma or does not enroll the subsequent fall but opts to take the GED route and in fact may complete successfully the GED assessment is counted as a "non-completer."

In reviewing the last state accountability reports we see what the Completion Rate is for 2007 and 2008 for all the districts in Bexar County:

Completion Rate (w/o GED)	2007 %	2008 %
Alamo Heights	95.1	99.1
North East	95.7	95.8
Harlandale	88.7	90.0
Northside	88.2	89.5
East Central	89.1	89.2
Southwest	89.3	88.0
Somerset	79.3	82.5
Judson	84.0	81.3
Edgewood	81.4	80.0
Southside	78.3	77.1
San Antonio	70.9	75.7
South San	77.1	73.4
Average Completion Rate	84.8	85.1

I recognize there are different ways of calculating a dropout rate and I respect the different opinions and analyses of organizations that report a dropout rate.  With the many and varied definitions and ways of calculating dropout rates, I tend to rely more on the Completion Rate calculation.  However, as stated previously, in the calculation of Completion Rate they use Completion Rate I which does not include students who complete their GED diploma, whereas Completion Rate II does include the GED students.  Even though Completion Rate I is used in the calculation of completion rate for accountability purposes, I believe Completion Rate II should be used.  I will agree that students who do not stay in school and get their diploma could be called a dropout even though they may opt to complete their high school education with a GED.  Yet Northside ISD and many other large districts actually conduct graduation ceremonies in which these students are awarded their General Education Equivalency Certificate.  If everyone could agree on using Completion Rate rather than Dropout Rate, and then came to consensus on whether a student who receives a GED is a dropout or not, then there might be more consistency in how students not finishing a high school education might be reported.

I heard someone say just this week that San Antonio has a high illiteracy rate and the high schools have a serious dropout problem.  I will agree that we as educators should do everything we can to keep students in school, but I also believe the dropout problem is much more than just a school problem.  It is also a societal issue, which must be addressed in many and varied ways.  As hard as all of you work to help our students be successful, then let's be forthright about this issue and define it in an appropriate way.

Have a great week!  Thanks for all you do to help our students be successful, and this week educators and board members from all across Texas will get to see "Deep in the Heart of Northside!"