Retired
superintendent calls dropout epidemic the nation’s biggest socio-economic
problem
Dr. Armand Fusco has literally written the book on the
dropout problem. He released a 500-page tome earlier this year called
“School Pushouts: A Plague of
Hopelessness Perpetuated by Zombie Schools.”
By Ben Velderman EAGnews.org July, 2012
EAGnews.org is the flagship website of Education Action
Group Foundation, Inc., a national organization headquartered in Michigan. EAG is a
non-partisan non-profit organization with the goal of promoting sensible
education reform and exposing those with a vested interest in maintaining the
status quo.
http://eagnews.org/retired-superintendent-calls-dropout-epidemic-the-nations-biggest-socio-economic-problem/
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GUILFORD,
Conn. – Armand Fusco has dedicated over 50 years of
his life to public education, first as a classroom teacher and later as a
guidance counselor, a principal, a superintendent and a university professor.
The 80-year-old educator and scholar has seen virtually every educational fad
and reform there is, but none has come close to solving what he calls “the most
serious socio-economic problem facing the nation” - school dropouts.
“Reforms
intended to improve inner city schools do not address the dropouts because they
are considered throwaway children – out of sight, out of mind,” Fusco tells
EAGnews.org in an email exchange.
The
“throwaway” children – many of whom are black males and Latinos – all have one
thing in common: they are functionally illiterate, lacking basic reading,
writing and math skills. As a result, “they experience academic failure day in
and day out,” and have no compelling reason to remain in school, Fusco says.
On average,
7,200 kids drop out of school every day, totaling 1.2 million dropouts per
year. Over the course of three years, that’s a population that surpasses the
size of Chicago.
Dropping out
of school causes obvious economic hardships for young people. They earn far
less than their high school- and college-educated peers, assuming they can even
find work.
Low-skilled
workers have unemployment rates that are two-to-four times higher than those
with higher levels of training, and they also spend more time out of work,
writes Dropout Nation editor RiShawn Biddle.
But dropping
out of school results in more than lost income; it also leads to lost lives.
School dropouts account for 80 percent of the nation’s prison
population, which Fusco sums up this way: “If a student can’t read, he can’t
learn, he can’t get a job, he can’t survive, so he can’t stay within the law.”
It’s a
serious problem, but Fusco says only one of the education reforms being
proposed and enacted throughout the nation has the potential to solve it:
holding back third graders until they acquire adequate math and reading skills.
The research
backs him up: students who don’t have basic literacy skills by third grade are
four times more likely to drop out of high school.
Third grade
retention “is the only policy that may have some lasting effect, and it’s still
in its infancy,” Fusco says.
A few states
do require students to be proficient in reading before leaving the third grade
– most notably Florida and Indiana – but he warns that approach will
not succeed unless there are intensive literacy intervention programs for
struggling students.
“It should
begin the summer following grade three and continue, if need be, by having a
minimum of four hours a day devoted to literacy instruction,” Fusco says,
adding that “interventions could and should begin even earlier.”
‘Zombie schools’
Fusco has literally written the book on the dropout problem. He released a
500-page tome earlier this year called “School Pushouts: A Plague of Hopelessness Perpetuated by Zombie Schools.”
As the title
reveals, Fusco blames the dropout problem on “zombie schools” – his term for
failing schools – and the adults who allow them to exist.
The former
superintendent places much of the blame on ineffective school boards that fail
to provide strong leadership and shirk their oversight duties. Weak school
boards cede too much control over the operation of the school district to the
local teachers unions.
Clauses in
teacher contracts constrain school administrators from effectively managing the
school by placing limits on class sizes, meeting times, teacher evaluations,
teacher assignments, grievance procedures and layoff procedures, among other
things.
“The very
public institutions intended for student learning have become focused instead
on adult employment,” he says.
Fusco also
blames state departments of education “that tread too lightly on local
control,” thus allowing weak-kneed school boards to exist.
“(The
states) are the ones that have the responsibility and are in control,” he says.
“There is no one else to blame.”
Fusco
recoils at the typical union suggestion that parents are ultimately to blame
for allowing their children to attend school unprepared to learn. Unions only
make that argument to shift responsibility from their members, he says.
“What
parents can be blamed for is not supporting what the schools are trying to do
academically, not helping enforce discipline, and not getting involved with the
school, although many single parents don’t have the time to do it,” he adds.
‘A time bomb exploding ‘
Fusco spends hours every morning scouring various education blogs
and websites for the latest reports and studies concerning school dropouts. The research
has led Fusco to break with fellow education reformers over the value of
charter schools, vouchers and school choice.
Such options
might provide “an immediate escape from the bondage of failing public schools,”
but only if there is a successful school nearby, he says. Too
often, students end up trading a failing school for one that is “less
failing.”
But he
reserves his strongest criticism for reformers who want to expand preschool
programs.
“That’s
probably the most insane reform,” he says. “What is absent from the discussion
is what happens to children upon leaving preschool. Since this effort is
primarily in the inner cities, and since the inner cities have the
preponderance of failing schools, the reality is that the preschoolers simply
move on to a failing school. That makes no sense.
“What
preschool does is to provide many union jobs, and that’s really what it’s
about.”
Instead, Fusco advocates
policies that are designed to boost reading skills. That list includes teaching
literacy in all classes, using online learning programs for intervention
purposes, having schools partner with local colleges and universities and, of
course, third grade retention.
He notes
that the third grade reform “engine has not picked up steam,” possibly because
holding students back is a blow to the self-image of both the students and
their parents.
But research
shows that third grade retention only works if it is accompanied with an
effective reading intervention strategy. Holding students back simply to give
more of the same only results in continued failure, he warns.
Educators
also need to revamp the high school experience, since this “is where dropouts
occur.” He says “improving high schools – what they do and how they do it –
could be a significant help in stemming the tide of dropouts.”
“Remember
what the basic problem is – dropouts are in all respects illiterate and that is
why they are failing,” Fusco says.
He sums up
the urgency of the dropout problem this way: ”This
is a time bomb exploding economically and socially every twenty-six seconds.”