Newsroom – California State University, Northridge

CSUN Education Dean Says Partnerships and Preparation Can Lead to Improved High School Graduation Rates

(NORTHRIDGE, Calif., Dec. 15th, 2011) ―

There is no rule that says everyone who graduates from high school must go on to college. But there is an expectation that everyone who graduates from high school has the skills to become successful, contributing members of society.

But without that education, Michael Spagna, dean of California State University’s Northridge’s Michael D. Eisner College of Education, said the foundation that serves as the base for so much of America’s middle class is in jeopardy.

“The problems facing K-12 have a direct impact on our workforce and future employment opportunities,” Spagna said. “You don’t have to have a child in the public school system to be directly impacted. You just have to ask yourself who is going to be your future doctor, your future nurse, your future car mechanic? If we aren’t giving our children a good education today, what is going to happen tomorrow?”

Spagna said faculty in the Eisner College have been working closely with local Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) officials and community groups, such as Project GRAD, to increase the graduation rates of at-risk youth.

In particular, spurred by research that indicates that the academic level students achieve by eighth grade has a bigger impact on college and career readiness and success than anything that happens academically in high schools, CSUN education faculty have been working with local middle schools to target those students who seem on track to drop out. And the subject they are focusing on is algebra.

“The algebra success rate in LAUSD is low,” Spagna said. “Only 6 percent of 828 Algebra 1 students at one high school scored ‘proficient’ or above in the California Standards Test. And studies show that two-thirds of those who fail algebra in eighth or ninth grade fail to graduate on time. It seemed to us that if that is where the problem is, then that is where we need to be working.”

At one middle school, secondary education professor Ivan Cheng and a team of Northridge education students focused on children who were struggling in math. They worked with the teachers to provide them with the proper support in the classroom and ensured that the middle school students had the support they needed as well.

“In just one year, the achievement rate for those kids jumped,” Spagna said. “If that happened in just one school, imagine what would happen if we took the program and replicated it in schools across the district?”

But Spagna stressed that it’s not one program fits all.

“The key is, we have to identify what works, and empower and train the teachers who are successful so that they can share their skills with their peers, who can then adapt what they have learned to the needs of their particular schools,” he said.

“We are going to have to trust our teachers,” he said. “You have veteran teachers, those in the middle of their careers and those who are just starting out. They all have something to teach and they all have something to learn. That’s where we at Cal State Northridge come in.

“We need to facilitate that dialogue between teachers and university professors, to study what works and to share what we collectively know about effective teaching and successful learning,” he said. “And we can’t just do it from our ‘ivory tower.’ We need to be out there in classrooms, see for ourselves what the teachers are dealing with, and work with them to come up with solutions.”

Spagna cited some statistics: Out of every 100 ninth graders in the Los Angeles Unified School District, only 66 are ‘on track’ to graduate from high school. Of those, only 52 will graduate from high school in four years. Of that 52, only 32 will enroll in college. And of that 32, only 14 will receive a college degree.

“Something needs to be done,” he said. “We can continue to throw ideas into the air and hope that we find something that works. Or we can tap into the successes that already exist, build upon them and develop a network for K-12 teachers and administrators, that includes those of us in higher education, to share best practices, conduct applied research, and facilitate dialogue. Cal State Northridge is forging these important partnerships right now.”

 

 

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