New Report on the Dropout Crisis

I'm forwarding information that I received yesterday from a Service Learning Listserv:

On the Front Lines of Schools: Perspectives of Teachers and Principals on
the High School Dropout Problem.
By: John M. Bridgeland, John J. DiIulio, Jr. and Robert Balfanz

In a follow-up to The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives of High School Dropouts
(http://www.servicelearning.org/library/resource/8724), a report on the dropout crisis in American public education, Civic Enterprises has created a new report that includes the views of teachers and administrators, perspectives missing from its first report. This report has documented a mix of hopeful views and challenging statistics concerning how, and how well, those on the front lines of America's schools -- teachers and principals -- understand the nation's high school dropout crisis, including the ability for service-learning to be part of that solution.

Read the full report:
http://www.servicelearning.org/library/resource/8724

I read the executive summary of this report last night and it's a bit disturbing. First an awful lot of teachers don't think there is a "crisis" and many don't think that all kids can do the work needed to go to college.

I think this deserves a lot of conversation because I've heard many in the manufacturing field say "colleges have us brainwashed" to believe that every kids must go to college. If we believe this we don't invest in high quality vocational education, or we look at that path to jobs as "less significant".

I think the "politically correct" expectation is to say every kids can do college work. I'm not sure every kid wants to, or is motivated by that type of path. We should be preparing kids for different paths to jobs, and perhaps this report will stimulate some new thinking around this.

What do you think?