bjbjLULU MARGARET WARNER: Finally tonight, a student perspective on one effort to improve
the quality of New York City high schools. This report is the product of a unique partnership
involving the NewsHour's educational division and an after-school journalism program run
by WNYC Radio in New York. Ten students from around the city worked on researching and
producing this. It is narrated by Shivahn Sen, a freshman at Hunter College in Manhattan.
SHIVAHN SEN, Hunter College: In the United States, 1.3 million students from the class
of 2010 didn't graduate from high school. Nearly 73,000 of these students were from
New York City alone. Fazya Bacchus was dangerously close to becoming one of the 7,000 students
that drop out of school every day. FAZYA BACCHUS, Flushing High School: Before, I was involved
with drugs, and going out to parties, and fights, and stuff like that. And now it's
going to school and getting my credits and graduating. SHIVAHN SEN: Fortunately, she
had a friend who helped her get back on track. FAZYA BACCHUS: My best friend, she just told
me: Go to school. We will graduate together. We will go to college together. You know,
we just want to do everything together. (LAUGHTER) SHIVAHN SEN: However, many of Fazya's classmates
fall victim to the numerous difficulties facing Flushing High School, which is located in
Queens, N.Y. FAZYA BACCHUS: They have drug-selling in the school, and there's gang fights. There's
just a lot of stuff going on. SHIVAHN SEN: Flushing High has been labeled a dropout factory
by some educators. The term was coined by Dr. Robert Balfanz of Johns Hopkins University.
He characterizes a dropout factory as a school from which fewer than 60 percent of the students
graduate in four years. New York City's Department of Education has closed many such schools
and targeted others, like Flushing High, for closure. Robeson High School in Brooklyn is
also on the shutdown list. However, teachers and students at that school think their school's
characterization as a dropout factory is unfair. LIZABETH COOPER, Paul Robeson High School:
In every high school, you always have one or two students that drop out. But, in Robeson,
I see a lot of people graduating. And the fact that they may not graduate in four years,
but they will graduate in that fifth or sixth year. So, I despise the fact that many people
believe that Robeson is a dropout high school. SHIVAHN SEN: Stefanie Siegel is a longtime
teacher at Robeson High. STEFANIE SIEGEL, Paul Robeson High School: One of the things
that we have always been proud of is that, even though we have young people who come
with lots of challenges, we're able to keep them here. They won't graduate in four years,
for a variety of reasons: learning disabilities, or such challenges in their home life, it's
just hard for them to have a good attendance, so that it ends up taking them longer for
those reasons. But they stay. SHIVAHN SEN: Robeson is not the only school dealing with
low graduation rates. The International High School at Prospect Heights, where Rosie Frascella
teaches, is experiencing similar issues. ROSIE FRASCELLA, International High School at Prospect
Heights: You know, my school is special because they are all English-language learners. SHIVAHN
SEN: In fact, students who speak English as a second language have a four-year graduation
rate of less than 40 percent. Teachers at Prospect also disagree with the label "dropout
factory." ROSIE FRASCELLA: It's another clich name. You know, I know what I do. I know about
my job. I know, when I go home, I dream about my kids. I know I think about them. I know
I spend at least 10 hours of my day working. I know we are doing whatever we can with the
resources we have, and I have full confidence in my school. SHIVAHN SEN: When it is overwhelmingly
young people of color who attend the schools targeted for closure, some believe this is
a civil rights issue. Anurima Bhargava is the section chief of civil rights education
in the Justice Department. ANURIMA BHARGAVA, U.S. Department of justice: It is a civil
right issue because it is about fairness. It is about making sure that someone has a
chance and that the doors are open to them. But it's also about making sure that we are
actually preparing students to be able to work and live and survive in the American
economy today, which is very different than it used to be. SHIVAHN SEN: Advocates like
Bhargava point to research that suggests that one of the most important factors to graduating
is simply keeping the kids engaged and providing them with support. ANURIMA BHARGAVA: So the
question is, how do we actually think about education as -- not as a factory and not as
a place that -- where kids drop out, but as a place where we're actually figuring out
what are their needs and how do we keep them there, all right? And that's going to be a
very different model than what we have today in schools. ROSIE FRASCELLA: Computers and
spending a billion dollars on technology and infrastructure is not going to stop kids from
dropping out. Human beings stop kids from dropping out, calling their parents, having
that human conversation, that interaction. SHIVAHN SEN: Fazya couldn't agree more. She
thinks having an adult who listens would help kids in school. FAZYA BACCHUS: And when I
talk to somebody, it helps me. I feel better, and I go to my classes. I do what I have to
do. SHIVAHN SEN: Paul Robeson High School increased its four-year graduation rate from
40.4 percent last year to 50 percent this year. However, the school remains slated for
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City urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags State MARGARET WARNER: Finally tonight, a
student perspective on one effort to improve the quality of New York City high schools
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