NGA: "Graduation Counts"

The National Governor's Association's "Graduation Counts" press conference explained how states had different ways of assessing graduation rates & thus comparing was problematic. As Governor Baldacci from Maine mentioned "it is like comparing basketball stats, but one team lowered the basket to 8 feet & everyone has 10 feet above the floor." What does it mean when you reduce standards & say we have great rates/stats? Amazing to me this has gone on for so long.

I found the following interesting!

Gov. Vilsak of Iowa:  "Indeed all students will have to go beyond High School."

Gov. Baldacci of Maine: "You are not competing with each other but with the world."

"...the reality is over 50 yrs of studies has been found the #1 predictor of success, whether or not a student will COMPLETE, not enter, college is not race, is not social economic status, it is whether or not they had access to & participated in a rigorous curriculum at the high school level."

Gov. Pawlenty of Minnesota:

"Just one generation ago if you didn't do well in school or were not focus or in a rigorous post high school pathway, you could still get a strong back job and  jobs back then would often pay wages & benefits packages that you could make a living on for you & your family; and of course the economy has changed to the point where these strong back jobs with those kinds of wage and benefits levels have largely disappeared so there's a in short an increased emphasis on strong mind jobs so that requires more than just the traditional amount of students on a post high school rigorous & relevant pathway and of course one measurement of how well we are doing with that is in regard to graduation rates..."

Gov. Granholm of Michigan:

"Greatest indicted of their states success is the number of people with a college degree."

She talked about how being a manufacturing state was great in the past but the challenge now.

Gov. Blanco of Louisiana:

"Poverty is too expensive & the cure is to get peopole with paying jobs with healthcare benefits. The way to do this is to get people good educational experiences."

Gov. Bredesen of Tennessee:

"...many people said it wasn't fair to hold high standards of poor inner city schools. What a terrible thing tosay to students when they are starting out with a lower set of expectations."

"Children are good at responding to expectations...set them low they will meet them but set them high & they will also meet them."