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Voices in Urban Education
Archives
Getting to Equity
VUE Number 11, Spring 2006
| VUE Home | Archives | Order Print Copy |
EXCERPT:
Coming Together: Looking across Sectors for Answers to the Dropout Question
By Monica Teixeira de Sousa, Michael D. Évora, Tonya M. Glantz, Brother Michael Reis, and Mike Capalbo
This collection of authors are members of the Racial Justice Task Force Subcommittee on Education in Rhode Island.
> Author Biographies
A coalition of lawyers and social welfare officials in Rhode Island is looking into the
roots of the dropout problem and the ways that agencies and organizations outside of education can work with schools to solve it.
Since 2004, a group of legal-aid lawyers, social workers, social service providers, and educators in Rhode Island have been meeting regularly to gather data on dropouts in the state and enlist others to join them in working to address the issue. The group, known as the Racial Justice Task Force Subcommittee on Education, grew out of a colloquium held at Roger Williams University School of Law that focused on issues of racial inequities. Voices in Urban Education editor Robert Rothman spoke with five members of the subcommittee – Monica Teixeira de Sousa, Michael D. Évora, Tonya M. Glantz, Brother Michael Reis, and Mike Capalbo – about the reasons students in Rhode Island drop out of school and ways that agencies and organizations can collaborate to address the problem.
Tell me about the Racial Justice Task Force Subcommittee on Education – how it got started, what it does.
MONICA TEIXEIRA DE SOUSA:
The Roger Williams University School of Law held a racial justice colloquium two years ago. Their intention was to examine issues where there was a racial disparity. They selected four issues: housing, criminal law, immigration, and education. At that time, four groups were developed, four subcommittees. The education subcommittee began meeting on a monthly basis. We started to look at the different issues within the field of education that we could address as a group. We decided to focus on the students we felt were the most vulnerable pupils. These are the students who are dropping out of our schools in tremendous numbers.
Rhode Island's Dropout Crisis
We know that Rhode Island has the highest dropout rate in New England. And we know that our graduation rates in Rhode Island's core cities were 62 percent for Providence, 65 percent for Pawtucket, 72 percent for Woonsocket, and 75 percent for Central Falls. These are the official numbers; many of the people who are on the ground actually suspect that the graduation rates are much lower. But even if you look specifically at these numbers, with Providence having a graduation rate of only 62 percent, that means we're losing almost 40 percent of students from the time they begin as freshmen to the time their cohort graduates from twelfth grade. This is not only a significant number of students; this is a crisis. It's a matter that requires urgent attention. And, with our work in this subcommittee, we are hoping to be able to bring attention to the issue and take some immediate action to remedy it.
Archives
Getting to Equity
VUE Number 11, Spring 2006
| VUE Home | Archives | Order Print Copy |
EXCERPT:
Coming Together: Looking across Sectors for Answers to the Dropout Question
By Monica Teixeira de Sousa, Michael D. Évora, Tonya M. Glantz, Brother Michael Reis, and Mike Capalbo
This collection of authors are members of the Racial Justice Task Force Subcommittee on Education in Rhode Island.
> Author Biographies
A coalition of lawyers and social welfare officials in Rhode Island is looking into the
roots of the dropout problem and the ways that agencies and organizations outside of education can work with schools to solve it.
Since 2004, a group of legal-aid lawyers, social workers, social service providers, and educators in Rhode Island have been meeting regularly to gather data on dropouts in the state and enlist others to join them in working to address the issue. The group, known as the Racial Justice Task Force Subcommittee on Education, grew out of a colloquium held at Roger Williams University School of Law that focused on issues of racial inequities. Voices in Urban Education editor Robert Rothman spoke with five members of the subcommittee – Monica Teixeira de Sousa, Michael D. Évora, Tonya M. Glantz, Brother Michael Reis, and Mike Capalbo – about the reasons students in Rhode Island drop out of school and ways that agencies and organizations can collaborate to address the problem.
Tell me about the Racial Justice Task Force Subcommittee on Education – how it got started, what it does.
MONICA TEIXEIRA DE SOUSA:
The Roger Williams University School of Law held a racial justice colloquium two years ago. Their intention was to examine issues where there was a racial disparity. They selected four issues: housing, criminal law, immigration, and education. At that time, four groups were developed, four subcommittees. The education subcommittee began meeting on a monthly basis. We started to look at the different issues within the field of education that we could address as a group. We decided to focus on the students we felt were the most vulnerable pupils. These are the students who are dropping out of our schools in tremendous numbers.
Rhode Island's Dropout Crisis
We know that Rhode Island has the highest dropout rate in New England. And we know that our graduation rates in Rhode Island's core cities were 62 percent for Providence, 65 percent for Pawtucket, 72 percent for Woonsocket, and 75 percent for Central Falls. These are the official numbers; many of the people who are on the ground actually suspect that the graduation rates are much lower. But even if you look specifically at these numbers, with Providence having a graduation rate of only 62 percent, that means we're losing almost 40 percent of students from the time they begin as freshmen to the time their cohort graduates from twelfth grade. This is not only a significant number of students; this is a crisis. It's a matter that requires urgent attention. And, with our work in this subcommittee, we are hoping to be able to bring attention to the issue and take some immediate action to remedy it.
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