Changing Perspectives

At first, I was frustrated with the GED test. The people who create this test probably have children all going to private colleges and have no idea what it takes to get a job cleaning houses. Nowadays so many people need their GED to get a job, but they are actually quite functional reading at a 6th or 7th grade level. And so many teenagers, especially urban minorities, drop out of school at 16 or 17 to have kids, with no income and no degree. Why not just let them graduate high school after 10th grade instead of 12th? And especially if the GED only requires 10th grade level skills?

The problem is that urban high school students are often not reading at a 10th grade level in the 10th grade. Just look at Cleveland Municipal School District's (CMSD) report card from the 2006 Proficiency Exams. Only around 54% of 10th grade students in Cleveland Public Schools were proficient in reading. The statewide average from public schools for percentage of proficiency is 74.3% for African Americans and 92.3% for White. This racial disparity is no doubt skewed by the high percentage of African Americans in urban schools, and also the equality of African American students in proficiency in private schools. So the injustice here is not discrimination by race, but by class. 100% of students enrolled in CMSD are considered economically disadvantaged.

With substandard public education, poverty breeds poverty. I'm letting go of the 10th grade high school graduation idea (because it's nearly a reality with the graduation tests and GED tests at that level), but now focusing on the quality of urban public schools. This disparity has continued for a couple generations now, and parents with substandard skills cannot help their children with middle school or high school level homework.

On top of that, just a diploma is not enough to secure a job. I've discovered recently that companies look at statistics on regional skill levels to decide where to build factories, headquarters, etc. Yes, the factories that moved out of Cleveland have moved out of the country, but we are not able to attract new companies due to adult's lack of basic skills. 72% of adults in the City of Cleveland are functioning at literacy levels 1 or 2, meaning they have reading and math skills below 8th grade level.

In 1979, this was adequate to be considered literate. Today, that is no longer the case. Jobs in the U.S. require greater and greater levels of proficiency in literacy and technology, and we are not adequately educating our children to be able to function and compete in that market. We are not adequately educating our adults, so that they can get jobs and provide for their children, so they can earn enough to have some time off of work to assist their children with schoolwork. Accepting inadeqaute standards is no longer possible. And it will no longer be tolerated in the City of Cleveland, I assure you.