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Home > Press Room Archives > 2005 > Press Release
Press Release
Communities & Schools Must Work Together to Graduate All
Students; Latest Texas Attrition Data Released
Nov 4-5 Summit to
Support Community-Based Leadership for Student Success
November 4, 2005
Contact: Brenda Alvarez,
(202) 833-6130
Christie L. Goodman, (210) 444-1710
San Antonio (November 4, 2005) – Texas
schools are failing to graduate two of every
five students – meaning schools lose a student
every four minutes. The Intercultural
Development Research Association released
detailed findings today from its latest study
showing that the high school attrition rate is
36 percent. In Texas for 2004-05, almost half of
Hispanic students, two out of five Black
students, and one of five White students were
lost from public school enrollment. County-level
figures are available online at
www.idra.org.
As
it releases its 20th annual attrition
study, IDRA is unveiling a “Quality Schools
Action Framework” at a statewide invitational
summit November 4-5 in San Antonio convened
by IDRA and the League of United Latin American
Citizens (LULAC). At the summit, invited
community members and educators from across
Texas are coming together to catalyze immediate
and long-term action to increase school holding
power.
“The dropout rate among Latino students is of
crisis proportions. Among the various Hispanic
ethnicities, Mexican Americans have the lowest
level of educational attainment with barely half
graduating from high school,” said Hector
Flores, LULAC national president. “We must
challenge the country to secure the future of
our young people and of the United States. The
goal of this summit is to gather a strong basis
of best practices to increase the much-needed
improvement for our Texas schools and spread the
anticipated success of the summit to the rest of
the nation.”
The
framework, developed by IDRA executive director,
Dr. María “Cuca” Robledo Montecel, gives tools
for communities and schools to work together to
strengthen school holding power and ensure
success for all students.
“It
is high time that Texas take a new course. Our
high schools lose more than one out of three of
their students before graduation. This lack of
school holding power affects every Texan,” said
Dr. Montecel. “Most dropout prevention programs
fail either because they are too narrow or
because they blame students and parents for the
problem. What we know, though, is that schools
themselves must change to increase their ability
to engage and educate students through to
graduation. Parents and communities have played
vital roles in every school reform effort – from
fighting for fair funding to making sure that
students are not ignored because of the language
they speak. Communities and their neighborhood
public schools can work together to guarantee
that every child graduates from high school.”
IDRA research shows that between 1985-86 and
2004-05, 2.2 million secondary students
have been lost from public school enrollment in
the state, costing the state over $500
billion in foregone income, lost tax
revenues, and increased job training, welfare,
unemployment and criminal justice costs.
Visit
www.idra.org to view the report, attrition
by county and background information.
The
League of United Latin American Citizens (www.lulac.org)
is the oldest and largest Hispanic civil rights
organization in the country. LULAC advances the
economic condition, educational attainment,
political influence, health, and civil rights of
Hispanic Americans through community-based
programs operating at more than 700 LULAC
councils nationwide.
The
Intercultural Development Research Association
is an independent, private non-profit
organization, directed by María Robledo Montecel,
Ph.D., dedicated to creating schools that work
for all children. As a vanguard leadership
development and research team for more than
three decades, IDRA has worked with people to
create self-renewing schools that value and
empower all children, families and communities.
IDRA conducts research and development
activities, creates, implements and administers
innovative education programs and provides
teacher, administrator, and parent training and
technical assistance.
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