Comments on: Darlene Fisher wants your input on drop out rates in Toledo…

By: wwjbd

wwjbd — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:25:47 +0000

The conference at MUO DANA Center was impressive today. There were a great many people from all of the various interested parties in attendance and participating. The student testimonies were particularly interesting. A large number of very actionable solutions were put forth after a tremendous amount of discussion. Anyone who actually takes a look at what is working would find that many of the suggestions are bring implemented in small pockets of success around the area. The main points seemed to be that students need parents or someone acting in a mentor capacity that they can relate to and that parents/guardians /mentors need to be involved in the process. No one in their right mind thinks that the educational process is what it was 20 – 30 years ago, and schools alone cannot do everything. When the young man, now at UT, spoke about his life experiences it was abundantly apparent that he had absolutely no support system at home, in fact he did not really have a home. We truly do need to listen to what our kids are saying and quit all of the “adult” in fighting and politics. IMHO

By: Maroon Tiger

Maroon Tiger — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:03:12 +0000

Education is needed, whether college or through vocational/industrial trading. The issue is making sure vocational trading provides flexibility in changing careers because America and their workforce is no longer fixed on having one career or job throughout someone’s lifetime. The idea of working somewhere 20-30 years until retirement is not where our economy is headed. In toledo, we lack economic viability for new companies because we have a low number of people with post-secondary education and mainly bachelor degrees in hard sciences and other areas as well. TPS and UToledo need to work hand in hand even more as partners. I have many ideas and hopefully Darlene you reach out to me for the many ways that we can improve education in our area especially in terms of Woodward, Scott, Libbey, and Waite area improvements, teacher training, and collaboration.

By: Maroon Tiger

Maroon Tiger — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:02:40 +0000

By: Darlene Fisher

Darlene Fisher — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:00:50 +0000

Yes, Gerald and Robin – you are correct. So many times I’ve been in the public and people ask me about the closing of Macomber – probably a huge mistake for Toledo. I’ve heard various reasons for that closing so I’m not 100% of the reasoning behind it but many grads from Macomber owe their success to the trades taught there. One of the things that we must do for the region is to take a look at the potential employers and career opportunties and work that backwards to see what skills we need to be teaching. Penta is hugely successful in this area – TPS not so much so there’s room for improvement. I attended the session today – the testimony from the students was most powerful. I’ll try to report on that soon. Thanks for the input – greatly appreciated.

By: Robin

Robin — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:43:58 +0000

I think vocational programs would be beneficial too.

By: Gerald

Gerald — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:14:59 +0000

I think one of the problems is the fact that they push college too much. Many students would do much better in vocational programs. I graduated from college and feel it was the worst mistake I ever made.

By: Darlene Fisher

Darlene Fisher — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:30:42 +0000

Bill – wow – fantastic post. I’ll take the ideas shared here to the Summit. Basically this approach is a goal setting that is monitored, followed up on and something the student can tie to their own success and destiny. From my stats background I know this – data that is monitored and measured correctly – often improves the situation. Wouldn’t it be cool if we could get one or two freshman classes in Toledo to consider this. Plus I like the idea that it doesn’t take a ton of work to accomplish – just buy in and a focus on the students. Appreciate it.

By: Bill Betzen

Bill Betzen — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:32:28 +0000

Darlene,
You are correct about the first step, knowing the real dropout rate. A 10+ year enrollment by grade spreadsheet on every school and school district web site would do that, with graduation numbers included for each year, and updates done annually.

The second step is to bolt a 500-pound gun vault to the floor in every secondary school lobby to function as a 10-year time-capsule. Each new class entering the school writes letters to themselves for the vault their first month in the school. They write about their life history and their plans for the future. Then, as they plan to graduate from that school years later, they receive back the initial letter and rewrite it with a clearer focus on their future in 10 years. They plan for a 10-year class reunion which will include speaking to then current students in the school about their recommendations for success.

Their Language Arts class where they write the letters will pose with them in front of the vault before they place their letters inside the last week before they leave the school. The next day they each receive copies of that photo with details on the back about their 10-year class reunion, phone numbers, dates, etc… and a reminder to expect questions from the students they will be talking to in 10 years such as “What would you do differently if you were 13 again?”

The first School Archive Project started in 2005. They were the Graduation Class of 2009. Both high schools who received these students had the largest 12th grade class ever with their Class of 2009! Dropout rates are going down! Watch the numbers reflecting the progress at http://www.studentmotivation.org. Not bad for a project costing less than $2 per student.

By: Darlene Fisher

Darlene Fisher — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:36:53 +0000

Lift Up Toledo – I appreciate your willingness to speak about these concerns. Can we meet? Please contact me at darlene@darlenefisher.com Thanks!

By: LiftUpToledo

LiftUpToledo — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:27:27 +0000

Darlene, thank you for your service as a board member.

I am an employee at one of Toledo’s “churches, social services, educational types.”

I have been personally involved in providing services to TPS for many years. Serving the children has been delightful, and evals have been top-notch.

But dealing with Mr Foley and his staff has been miserable. They backbite and complain about the Board, and pit social services agencies against each other in a manipulated fashion.

I know of mutiple agencies that are scared to death to speak-up about this environment. We tippy-toe around wondering who we need to keep happy. Talking to the Board is expressly forbidden.

Contracts equal captivity during the length of contract because of TPS’s mantra “I don’t care what the contract says, you better give me more services and lower prices NOW because I’ll change the requirements to exclude you next time if you don’t.”

A key employee at one of the high schools recently asked me “have they screwed you yet?” This devoted employee elaborated that most rank and file employees wonder why TPS treats its partners so poorly. We sure miss Gene!

Community collaborations start at the top with an attitude that embraces partnerships vs. “let’s find someone we can beat up.”

I’m sad to post this feedback. I don’t understand how good people like Mr. Foley and his team of lifelong educators becomes so blind their own unproductive stratigies.