I just saw President Obama doing a PSA for boostup.org, an education program that is supposed to help out low income students.
Obama implied that there was a 30% drop out rate in high school. I looked at several web sites in search of high school drop out rates and could not find a source that shows a U.S. drop out rate of 30%. Now, there are several states that have a dropout rate that is pretty high but overall? If someone can find where the drop out rate is 30%, I'll reconsider.
http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d09/tables/dt09_106.asp
http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d09/tables/dt09_108.asp
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Check out this article about the most recent annual report on graduation rates by Education Week and the Editorial Projects in Education (EPE) Research Center:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2009/0609/p02s13-usgn.html
"In 1996, the national on-time graduation rate was 66.4 percent; by 2006, that figure had risen to 69.2 percent."
I suspect that study is the source of the 30% drop-out rate claim by Boostup.org. It is unfair to say that Obama is lying in the Boostup ad.
Except you said it is on-time graduation. Sometimes it takes an extra year or semester or even summer school to get the final credits. i also doesn't address special ed. students who can go to school until age 22.
ReplyDeleteYou can argue about whether 69.2% graduation rate = 30% drop-out rate, but even if it doesn't, that doesn't mean that Boostup and Pres. Obama are lying. Boostup may be misinterpreting the study (or maybe the 30% drop-out rate is accurate). I think the report on that study provides ample evidence that Boostup and the President are making an argument in good faith. For you to continue insisting that they are lying, after I pointed out the evidence above, means that you aren't interested in evidence, nor in giving anyone the benefit of the doubt if you disagree with their politics. You have the right to say whatever you want on your blog, but when you let your emotions get in the way of fairness on an issue, you undermine your own credibility.
ReplyDeleteAnd for a teacher who is also a devout Christian to trash a PSA that is meant to encourage kids to stay in school as a way to make unfounded allegations against the President seems pretty hostile. I knew you hated the current President, but I never realized the depths of your hatred.
I saw a BoostUp.org commercial that claimed 7000 dropouts per day, which is 1.26 million for a 180 day school year. Doesn't that seem impossibly high? I don't have the statistics but I don't believe one needs them to know this is a misuse of the numbers.
ReplyDeleteWe all know there are Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics. Once I realized this is a campaign vehicle, it was clear this is a misrepresentation.