Bessemer education - F

I am both disgusted and embarrassed that Bessemer City High School has a graduation rate of 36%, as reported here in the Birmingham News.

Now I know that there is a new way of coming up with the number, and I see that the superintendent has made some excuses, but let’s compare to the other schools in the metro area, which all arrived at their figures using the same formula.

Fairfield – 57%
Midfield – 46%
Hoover – 90%
McAdory – 87%
Wenonah – 59%

I looked at the list for the entire state, and Bessemer is the worst statewide, other than S.R. Butler in Huntsville and a couple of schools that I think are alternative schools.

Let’s take 100 students, represented each by “i” since each student is an individual.

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iiiiiiiiii
iiiiiiiiii
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iiiiiiiiii
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Here are the graduates, represented by an exclamation point, because it is the most important achievement most of them have made in their lives.

!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!

Here are those who did not graduate from high school, represented by an “x” because they have a huge strike against them from this moment on.

xxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxx
xxxx.

All lined up the 100 students look like this.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The value of a high school diploma

The thing I don’t want to hear is an anecdotal story of a high school dropout who is now a billionaire. In today’s economy, the chances of becoming successful (or even getting a job) improve with each degree held, beginning with high school, then college, then graduate school.

Of course, there will always be jobs that do not require an education, such as sanitation workers, I guess. And there is nothing wrong with having those jobs…someone must do those things. But is that what anyone aspires to?

According to the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics a person with a high school diploma will earn, over their lifetime, $280,000 more than a person without a high school education.

Of course, you need a high school diploma to enter college, and the earnings go up more with a college education

Who is at fault?

Who’s to blame? That is always the question.

Bessemer system superintendent Fred Primm said his biggest concern isn’t dropouts, which is listed at 9%, but instead are “withdrawals, no-shows and missing records.”

If you look at the report and the raw numbers, dropouts were 33, withdrawals are 22, no-shows are 110 and missing records are 16.

Frankly, I can understand his concern about no-shows compared to dropouts, since that is over 3 times the number, but to give more concern to “missing records” (16) and “withdrawals” (22) is misguided, in my opinion.

I see three problems in regards to no-shows and dropouts: the schools and the parents and city officials.

Someone has to instill in kids at a very early age the importance of graduating from high school. Having a “graduation coach” and an “academic improvement specialist” at Bessemer City High School is a waiting a bit too late to do anything.

The graduation coach needs to meet with children each year, beginning with Grade 1.  Seriously. If a goal of graduating is not present from the very beginning, it’s not going to be instilled in the 11^th grade.

I have been told by a former Bessemer educator that some parents actually discourage their kids from performing well. This sounds like an urban legend, but unfortunately, the 1960’s attitude that education is for white folks and black folks don’t need to become what white people aspire to is still around it seems.

The following is from an article I found online, backing this up.

“These kids were just 7 and 8 years old, yet they had already been indoctrinated to think that education is for whites only. Who else other than their parents could they have gotten that from?

"This is exactly why black students are lagging behind white students in school. Black students just don't think that education is important. Black boys also have the highest dropout rate in the country (50% of black boys drop out of high school). Why is this happening? It's because black children are raised in a culture (or a household) that doesn't value education.”

Of course, people will deny this, it will not be addressed, and nothing will be done.

What needs to be done

I don’t have an answer for this, but someone has to step in and let these kids know the value of education. The parents are not doing it. And so far, the schools are not doing it.

Let me throw in that several years ago I was interested in volunteering to assist in teaching science to middle or high schoolers. I started a blog, Bessemer Science and Nature (here is the first post from 2009)  that I wanted to use to interest kids in school in science. I also volunteered to mentor students. I sent emails to teachers and administrators, and mentioned my ideas to the principle of the middle school. No one took me up on it. No emails were returned, and without even considering the reasons they might ignore my offers (he’s gay! He’s white!) I gave up and turned my efforts elsewhere.

The school system is the only entity that can step in. Since they have been unwilling or unable to do this I say it’s time for voters to replace the entire school board. 

Also we need for parents and city officials and business owners to demand of principals of every school that steps be taken to ensure that children know that education is a must to succeed in today’s world, and that education is not a "white" thing.

And the schools need to, as I suggested, talk to every student every year about the importance of goal setting, and of a particular goal: graduating from high school on time.