Establish community action teams including parents, community members, and business representatives who will regularly and systematically monitor and report on the dropout identification, counting, and reporting process and dropout prevention efforts at their campuses.
– M. Robledo Montecel. Texas Needs Diplomas, Not Delusions, testimony, Intercultural Development Research Association, 2002
“We know what is needed to address the problem of weak school holding power. What we need is the public will and commitment to carry it out.”
– M. Robledo Montecel. Intercultural Development Research Association, 2004
“Imagine what could happen in classrooms across America if teachers were to approach all students as if the students were geniuses instead of low-achieving students, average students, high-achieving, gifted students, learning disabled students or students at risk. Labeling and tracking students undermine the premise that every student is or can be a genius.”
– T.L. Williams. The Directory of Programs for Students At Risk, Eye on Education, 1999
“Implement school-based, quality data systems that track student enrollment, progress, and graduation and allow schools to report accurate results to their districts and states.”
– National Association of Secondary School Principals. What Counts: Defining and Improving High School Graduation Rates, 2005
Texas must use simple definitions, verify its counting and reporting and use proven dropout prevention strategies and models. It must first put the dropout definition back into the law: “For the purposes of local, district, and state dropout reporting, `dropout’ means a student (a) who does not hold a high school diploma, (b) who is absent from the public school in which the student is enrolled for a period of 30 or more consecutive days, and (c) whose attendance within that period at another public school or private or parochial school cannot be verified.
– M. Robledo Montecel. Texas Needs Diplomas, Not Delusions, testimony, Intercultural Development Research Association, 2002