Last Friday, the Commonwealth reported the Greenwood Public School District had a dropout rate of 39.4 percent in 2009, the second-highest rate in the state.
On Tuesday, Greenwood School Superintendent Margie Pulley had a very curious reaction to that news.
“I will caution you to — don’t believe everything you read in the newspaper,” Pulley told the school board. “I don’t know where they got that information, but we do a good job of educating the children that come to the Greenwood Public School District.”
There’s no secret about where that information came from. It came from a report by the the Mississippi Department of Education. The department collected the data from schools’ self-reported figures of the Mississippi Student Information System.
In other words, the information came from the Greenwood Public School District. It should be no surprise to Pulley or the other leaders of the school district. Did they think the numbers would be different from what they turned in?
Pulley went on to say that she has not been able to fully review the information on the statistics but will look through it to see what needs to be done.
“We just got the reports, and we will be addressing the needs of the district,” Pulley said.
Again, she should have already known what was in the report. As for needs, the district needs to get students to stay in school.
American society is competitive. I believe this is what made us a great nation. Ultimately, all of us are judged by numbers: grade-point average, points scored, wins and losses, profits and losses, ratings, tickets sold, units produced, products sold, circulation.
I know that not everything a student learns in school can be measured by a grade-point average. One of the most important lessons a child learns at school is how to interact with other people outside of the home.
But the concrete measure of a student’s achievements is her or his grades. And the Greenwood public schools’ numbers are poor.
• Dropout rate: 39.4 percent. That means four out of every 10 members of the Class of 2009 dropped out between grades 9-12. The state rate is 16.7 percent.
And the dropout rates of nearby school districts? Leflore County 24.6 percent, Carroll County 24.6 percent, Greenville 23.7 percent, Cleveland 18.3 percent, Holmes County 20.2 percent and East Tallahatchie County 25.9 percent.
• Graduation rate: 48.8 percent. Less than half of the class of 2009 earned a diploma in four years. This rate, too, was among the lowest in Mississippi. The state rate is 71 percent.
• State accountability ratings: The Greenwood district was rated “At Risk of Failing” by the Mississippi Department of Education last year. That’s the third-lowest of the seven accountability ratings.
There are many reasons offered for the Greenwood public schools’ failures: Poverty, little parental involvement, a private school that takes away top students, a culture that doesn’t value education, and lack of community support.
The best reaction to that came from a Commonwealth editorial earlier this year:
“Certainly, some if not all of these factors are valid excuses, but excuses don’t get the job done. Nor do they do the students any good who are going to be competing for college admissions or jobs in a world that doesn’t really care how tough the odds were in the elementary and secondary schools they attended.”
No amount of reassurances or hopeful statements by school officials and board members can explain away the shortcomings of the city’s public schools. Ultimately, the superintendent has to be held responsible for the district’s performance.
The superintendent is hired by the school board, whose members are appointed by the mayor with the approval of the City Council. Therefore, they don’t have to answer to voters every four years. That’s a pity.
Earlier this year, Mayor Carolyn McAdams said that she wanted to improve the city schools’ performance by remaking the school board.
“Somewhere, within the system, something is broken,” she said.
McAdams’ first nominee to replace school board President Margaret Clark, after Clark’s term expired, was rejected by the City Council. The council approved the second, Lora Evans.
Ward 6 Councilman David Jordan suggested that the mayor should butt out of school reform, saying that it is the state’s responsibility to look over the performance of the schools — not the city’s.
“As far as you trying to evaluate the schools, you can’t do that,” Jordan said.
Jordan added, “The Greenwood school district is doing fine.”
I wonder if he and the other politicians and board members who say things like that really believe it. If they do, they should check the numbers again.
• Contact Charles Corder at ccorder@gwcommonwealth.com.
