Rural students in Georgia: Fewer than 6 in 10 will graduate
In a study released today, Georgia emerges as one of the worst states for educating and graduating rural high school students. This ought to concern rural legislators, few of whom have risen up to complain about cuts to education.
More than half a million public school students in Georgia attend rural schools, nearly one-third of all students in the state, according to the new study "Why Rural Matters 2009."
In fact, this ought to concern all of us as we have many rural students in Georgia. We are third in the nation in rural school enrollment. Yet, we are in the bottom five in the rural high school graduation rate.
More than half a million public school students in Georgia attend rural schools, nearly one-third of all students in the state, according to the new study “Why Rural Matters 2009.”
In its summary about Georgia, the Rural School and Community Trust study also states, “Rural schools and districts are among the largest in the U.S., graduation rates are lower than all but 2 other states, and NAEP scores rank near the bottom. Concentrated poverty rural districts in Georgia graduate only 4 out of 10 of their students.”
Among the findings of the study:
South Carolina, Alaska, Georgia, New Mexico and Arizona graduate fewer than 6 in 10 of their rural students.
More than half of all rural students in the U.S. attend school
in just 11 states, including some of the nation’s most populous
and urban states. In order of rural enrollment size, those schools are
North Carolina, Texas, Georgia, Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania,
New York, Tennessee, Michigan, California, and Alabama.The four states with the largest rural enrollments — North
Carolina, Texas, Georgia, and Ohio — serve 1 in 4 of all rural
students in the U.S., more than 27 other states combined,
including several that are typically thought of as rural (e.g.,
Vermont, Nebraska, Kansas, Louisiana).States with the lowest rural fourth grade NAEP scores are scattered
among several regions: seven of the lowest performing
13 are in the Southeast and Mid-South Delta, Arkansas,
Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia, and
Tennessee.Graduation rates among concentrated poverty districts are
disturbingly low. In South Carolina and Georgia, about 4 in 10 will make it
through high school and receive a diploma.School and district size exert influence over the schooling
process both individually and in combination with one
another. Specifically larger size has been linked with undesirable
schooling outcomes, particularly among impoverished
and minority students. By including this indicator, we intend
to provide a relative measure of the scale of operations for
rural education in each state. The range is dramatically wide:
Florida, the highest ranking state, has a median organizational
scale that is nearly 1,000 times larger than the lowest
ranking state, Montana. Thirteen of the next 14 highest
ranking states are located in or contiguous to the Southeast
region (in order, Maryland, North Carolina, Georgia, South
Carolina, Louisiana, Virginia, Tennessee, Delaware, Alabama,
Mississippi, West Virginia, Kentucky), states where countywide
districts and regional high schools are the norm.
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32 comments Add your comment
DeKalb Conservative
November 17th, 2009
12:06 pm
What’s the cause / effect here? How different is a student in rural GA w/ a diploma versus one without a diploma?
What is the rate of acquiring a GED?
What is the percentage breakdown of males v. females? How does teen pregnancy play into this?
These stats don’t really say anything.
Jennifer
November 17th, 2009
12:39 pm
http://www.winnersville.net/education.htm
Go read it. And this is with a rural type community that is trying very hard to make a difference. Can you imagine a rural community where no one speaks up ?
hillbilly slim
November 17th, 2009
1:04 pm
It is legal to quit school at 16 years old in GA. Change the law so you can’t quit at any age and the graduation rate will go up.
philosopher
November 17th, 2009
1:50 pm
What I have seen here educating kids in rural GA., is that the kids in high school who didn’t graduate, (’way too many of them) came from homes where the parents had no expectations for them to graduate, had less education than their children and did not support/encourage them during their school years. Many were encouraged to quit school to help provide family income as soon as they were able. Many were raised with the simple purpose of getting married and continuing the cycle. My purpose is not to judge the situation but to state what I have seen). It was a real challenge to raise my children with different goals. Good education is available as mine have received an excellent education over the years (I took my older ones out of district and supplemented their education over the years to provide better than was available). But there were no financial obstacles to a good, basic education.
techie teach
November 17th, 2009
2:01 pm
I think access to quality online learning can really help the situation. Rural Virginia has made great strides with their Virtual Virginia programs. Will try to add the links later!
teacher
November 17th, 2009
2:03 pm
I agree with the last comment. Most rural schools do a great job with their kids. Culturally, the kids are not encouraged to graduate and there is very little parent support.In the system where I work, there are several suburban high schools and one rural. Less than 2% of the kids served in the rural school come from homes with parents who pursued education after high school. There is very little vision beyond the world in which they live and very little interest in academics. With the state and local authorities taking away more of our career/technical classes, it makes it even harder to give kids a meaningful education. In spite of great odds, the school has increased graduation rates and test scores.
jim d
November 17th, 2009
2:11 pm
Perhaps teaching things they can use would be a good start–rather than expecting them all to be college material and become doctors and lawyers.
jim d
November 17th, 2009
2:15 pm
let me add that many of these “drop outs” are caught up in the government welfare system, they know no other way and just continue to feed into the system–they really don’t need a HS diploma for that
Steve
November 17th, 2009
2:17 pm
GA is a cesspool of human underachievement.
UGA Trained Teacher
November 17th, 2009
2:18 pm
This is very misleading. Students who exit school with a Sp Ed Diploma or a Certificate of Attendance (did not pass all portions of the Graduation Tests) are counted as drop outs in GA. These students almost always participate in Graduation Exercises; I doubt they realize they don’t count. A few school systems do not let students walk if they are getting a Certificate instead of a diploma.
Former Rural Middle School Graduation Coach.
November 17th, 2009
2:43 pm
It is a shame Georgia is on the list. It is also a shame that graduation coaches were no longer funded effective this year. They were certainly a step in the right direction and had they been consistently implemented could have changed this sad outcome for at least a few kids. As a graduation coach who was a victim of educational budget cuts in my county, I have seen many of the strategies that were implemented to increase graduation just go by the wayside. No one to do them or to care about these kids who live in the margins.
majii
November 17th, 2009
2:54 pm
I taught for 33 years, all of them in rural GA school districts. In these districts there seems to be an ingrained belief that a high school diploma is not necessary to be successful in life. You also have problems with parents’ lack of interest in their own child’s education. I can’t recall the number of conference days and parents nights when the school was almost empty. Poverty plays a role in educating students in rural districts. This is one of the major reasons why many rural schools have free & reduced breakfast and lunch programs. Another thing I noticed about the kids in these districts is that many of them are unprepared academically for high school, and due to budget cuts, many school don’t have the extra funds to establish remediation classes to help the students catch up. High absenteeism and frequent moving around from county to county are also problems in rural districts. This leads to many of them becoming discouraged about coming to school, working hard, and graduating. I advocated for remedial programs in the districts where I taught, but nothing was ever done. We were always handed a “new” tactic that the system thought would prepare them for passing the graduation tests. This is akin to putting a band-aid on a gaping flesh wound. It made no sense to me to emphasize vocabulary when a lot of the students couldn’t read, understand, or retain what they studied. The entire burden for the student was placed on the teachers’ shoulders, and the majority of the teachers in these schools were very dedicated to their profession and interested in helping students learn. I don’t know what the exact solution is, but I think making sure that a student masters the material in the lower grades would probably go a long way to raise graduation rates in rural districts, and offering an alternative diploma in a tech-prep only program that leads to a tech-prep diploma might also help. Unlike some of the existing tech-prep programs, this program would offer only those courses necessary for the student to earn this specific diploma. The exit exam could be given in the student’s area of concentration and passing would earn the student immediate job certification and a prep-tech high school diploma.
philosopher
November 17th, 2009
2:56 pm
@Jim d and Steve: – Many excellent doctors and lawyers came from underprivileged rural settings and have contributed much to society,…and we will never know what many of them might contribute or become as long as we think of them as parasites of society. It would be better to try to understand the cycle (as in, research, compassion, and understanding, as opposed to judging and calling names) and find ways to interrupt the cycle. There are kids in ALL walks of life who will never be strong academically, just as some of the rural kids a capable of HUGE academic achievements. Be glad you were BORN into a different situation…it COULD have been you!
oldtimer
November 17th, 2009
3:01 pm
In the rural area where I now live, jim d is exactly correct. This state has raised the dropout age to 18, but graduation rates are not great. There are many hanging around school. I will say, this poor rural county is putting huge efforts at encourageing kids to pass tests and graduate. I don’t know much more they can do.
Veteran teacher, 2
November 17th, 2009
4:18 pm
The students have to do more than just show up. The sooner our politicians and the larger society admit this, the sooner that things will improve.
DeKalb Conservative
November 17th, 2009
4:26 pm
@ UGA Trained Teacher
Are you kidding me? Your SPED argument is irrelevant unless you’re suggesting GA has a strongly disproportionate number of SPED students than other states. If that is the case then either the water supply needs to be checked, or the criteria for special education needs to be reviewed in proportion to other states.
philosopher
November 17th, 2009
4:32 pm
When the highest official in our land, our duly elected president, wanted to talk to the students to motivate them to stay in school and work hard…what did our Georgia school leaders do? They refused to allow the kids to hear it. Clearly, we need to stop allowing education here in Georgia to remain politics as usual.
Rural students in Georgia: Fewer than 6 in 10 will graduate | Get … | Georgia Today
November 17th, 2009
4:48 pm
[...] View original post here: Rural students in Georgia: Fewer than 6 in 10 will graduate | Get … [...]
philosopher
November 17th, 2009
5:04 pm
So…our Georgia education role models said plainly to our kids, staying in school and working hard is not an importantnt enough message for you to hear…if it comes from someone we disagree with politically. Sorry, the kids might not be well-educated, but they are smart…and they know when someone is speaking out of both sides of the mouth…no respect earned there. Kids need to hear and see support for education consistently from every person that touches their lives…from infancy on…that’s how you break the cycle.
catlady
November 17th, 2009
6:00 pm
It would be nice if the study would try to tease out why rural students drop out more. My dissertation (based on vast national data) looked at the effects of “rurality” on student aspiration formation. Without aspirations and goals, few people make progress. Sure, some of it is lower SES (including educated) parents. However, there are other things going on as well. One thing I have noticed is the dearth of jobs in rural areas that require a high school diploma. Employers are quite glad to take folks who think they are “lucky” to get $10 per hour jobs at the chicken plant or pulpmill or the quarry.
It is not that rural kids are “dumber” than urban, but they don’t have much social or cultural capital, in addition to financial capital. They pattern themselves on what they know: “early family formation”, working at the mill, getting drunk on the weekend, “just getting by.”
Old School
November 17th, 2009
6:02 pm
Bring back the D (69-60) and you’ll have more graduates. Yeah, they’ll be below average but so what? Many with Cs and Bs are that now. Until kids care more about actually learning and retaining material & skills than lunch and socializing, it will just be the same old morass we’ve had the past 10 or so years. They can always run for political office and do as much to improve things as the current bunch of geniuses.
Joy in Teaching
November 17th, 2009
6:15 pm
I am a product of rural Georgia. Most of the people in my county just want to make a living and take care of their families. While they recognize that education is a valuable thing, most of them don’t want to put themselves into the poor house in order to try to get their kids through it. And with our state’s emphasis on “all kids should go to college”, they don’t feel as if they are getting a whole lot out of their high school experience anymore when most simply want to be able to make a living.
So they quit high school because it is doing nothing for them other than emphasizing that they won’t be going to college.
Its that simple, yet the politicians just don’t get it.
Rural Education
November 17th, 2009
8:21 pm
The real problem is that our republican controlled legislature refuses to consider raising any taxes. I don’t see the problem in raising taxes on alcohol or cigarettes. I would venture we are near the bottom on both, but they refuse to consider it.
jim d
November 18th, 2009
6:19 am
I’m with you rural, raise those taxes right after local rural comunities tax themselves the same as some of the urban areas.
jim d
November 18th, 2009
6:21 am
I surrender to the filters!!! y’all have a great life!
Bill
November 18th, 2009
7:44 am
At least people actually are taking about the rural students. Bring back woodworking, auto and other vo tech stuff in the schools. Let there be a non college prep track. The culture is very against anything progressive in thinking, really it is what it is. Givem them what they want. Rural people are in every state but clearly Georgia has its unique needs.
Adrian
November 19th, 2009
11:30 am
I recruited for the military in rural south GA from 2006-2009. I can honestly agree and disagree with the comments here. 75% of the kids that I was signing up, were from wealthy homes with both parents and was on the verge of dropping out because there was no discipline in the home. 25% of the kids were from the ghetto, where discipline played a role because the single black mother didn’t want their child to end up like her. The welfare system is just like a police department; they have to “protect” and serve”.
Ga boy
November 19th, 2009
12:13 pm
DeKalb Conservative
The stats say what a terrible education system and what terrible results we get here in Georgia and the south . Deal with it pal
Cobb school calendar petition - Atlanta - Georgia (GA) - Page 6 - City-Data Forum
November 20th, 2009
6:46 am
[...] I think socio-economics and demographics explain part of it. A recent report shows that less than 6 in 10 rural Georgia high school students earn their diploma! Rural students in Georgia: Fewer than 6 in 10 will graduate | Get Schooled [...]
Rural students in Georgia: Fewer than 6 in 10 will graduate | Get … | Georgia realestate live today
November 21st, 2009
12:12 am
[...] graduating agricultural broad edifice students. This ought to anxiety rural. See example here: Rural students in Georgia: Fewer than 6 in 10 module correct | Get … Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: a-study-released, concern-rural-, emerges-as-one, have-gay, [...]
Bill
November 21st, 2009
2:24 pm
Until Georgia takes a hard look at its educational system and quits blaming the parents, society, apathy, etc., nothing will ever change. Sure those things are factors, but has the educational strategies to teach today’s students cahnged in the past thrity years? Status quo is killing our educational systems in rural Georgia, if not across the state. Standards and expectations continue to lower under the disguise of higher standards (is passing a grad test that only requires students to answer 50% of the questions correct really high standards?). In Georgia, priorities need to be re-examined. High School football is more important to many schools and systems then teaching students reading. Teachers are pressured to ‘give’ grades to athletes to keep them eligible for Friday nights, easy credit recovery programs are rampant in many Georgia schools where students can makeup credits instead of learning the content needed to be prepared for success. How many schools closed close early or released students early this past Friday for a football playoff game?
AYP has blinded eduactaotrs and given them a false sense of success. Elementary and middle schools’ targets (AMOs) over since the inception of NCLB have been way lower than those that high schools are held too (60% pass rates to approx. 85%). The grad rate equation in GA is full of smoke and mirrors. There is really no way of holding schools truly accountable for the reporting of dropouts and/or transfers. Studies have shown that GA’s reported grad rates are highly stretched. Schools celebrate AYP but are stilling failing many students. A high school celebrating a 70% grad rate doesn’t seem to acknowledge that 30% are still not graduating.
At some point, the U.S. better get seriuos about raising expectations and holding folks accountable for achievement. More and more kids pour into high school reading on elementary grade levels, not able to do basic math skills and we wonder why these students fail. Total revamping of our approach to education is necessary, including looking at the quality of education that is provided to our students on a daily basis.
Kay parent
December 1st, 2009
5:26 pm
I’m a rural parent who is frustrated with the graduation tests. My son passed 3 out of the 4 tests. He has retaken the math portion 3 times and failed. Math has always been hard for him but he did pass with C’s. Now it is his senior year – wwhen I ask the school what to do they just say he will have to have a certificate of completion, not a diploma and that he can retake the test many times or get a GED. For students that are struggling this is hard – why should he struggle through this year if he knows he cannot graduate? I want himto get a diploma but not every student is good at taking tests. We do feel education is important – both myself and husband went to college. Not every student can pass those tests.