By Megan Burks
Giving Dropouts a Face and a Name
This week, Twitter was full links to a National Public Radio series on the nation’s dropout crisis. According to NPR, 1 million students stop attending school each year, costing the nation at least $319 billion annually. The personal cost is steeper, contributing to a cycle of job loss, drug use and jail time.
The five-part series takes a look at these struggles and puts a human face on the crisis. Reporter Claudio Sanchez talks with Chicago teen Patrick Lundvick, who dropped out when he was 15. Like half of all dropouts, Lundvick is African American. Sanchez later features Lauren Ortega, who left school after becoming pregnant, and Danny Lamont Jones, whose absenteeism put him so far behind, he stopped showing up completely.
Absenteeism like Jones’ could be one reason City Heights schools have some of the highest dropout rates in the city. Earlier this month, we ran a KPBS and Watchdog Institute investigation on the cost of chronically absent students. KPBS zeroed in on Lincoln High School, where no-shows are the results of complicated family lives and poverty.
Follow NPR’s Morning Edition staff @MorningEdition.
Excessive Discipline Fuels Dropouts and Incarceration
Two studies out this month show that academic achievement, especially among African Americans and Latinos, could have as much to do with school policies as it does with a student’s home life.
The Council of State Governments Justice Center followed 1 million Texas students for six years and found that 60 percent of them were expelled or suspended. Researchers found that 97 percent of the offenses did not require disciplinary action. Most of these discretionary actions were taken against African-American students.
The report suggests that such practices set up a pipeline to future joblessness and incarceration. In a commentary in the Sacramento Bee, Barbara Raymond of the California Endowment argues discipline in California schools could have a similar effect.
The up-hill battle for an education remains steep, even for California students of color who stay in school. In a study on college and career readiness, The Education Trust-West found that students of color and low-income students were more likely to be tracked into less rigorous courses than their more affluent peers. Even if they excelled in a lower track, they were rarely given the opportunity to move up, dashing hopes of getting into college.
[Disclaimer: Speak City Heights is funded by The California Endowment.]
Follow The Education Trust-West @EdTrustWest.
Free Law Classes Available
According to The Daily Transcript, San Diego adults can now take free legal classes at the San Diego County library in Lemon Grove. The classes, sponsored by the Filipino American Lawyers of San Diego and the Pan Asian Lawyers of San Diego, will take a look at topics like immigration and tenant rights.
The next course [PDF] is scheduled for Aug. 24 and will cover criminal law.
You can follow The Daily Transcript @SDDT.
Media Arts Center Helps Minorities, Communities Take Back the Media
Speak City Heights partner, Media Arts Center San Diego, has a couple of exciting events coming up.
In partnership with Maya Entertainment, its annual Cinema en tu Idioma mini film festival is scheduled to run Aug. 5 through Aug. 11 at UltraStar Cinemas in Mission Valley. Click here for a list of movies and schedules.
The center will then host Activist San Diego Aug. 29 for a “Building Community Radio” workshop. Activist San Diego is building a full-power FM radio station and looking for content producers for music and local news programming. The project will lay the groundwork for nonprofits to start up low-power FM stations under the Local Community Radio Act.
Follow the Media Arts Center San Diego @macsd and Activist San Diego @activistsd.