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Center will prepare teachers to work with children of poverty
Kim Gailliard
Issue date: 1/8/08 Section: News
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"Not only will our students benefit from (the center), but it will give… children a great benefit, too, because most of the research would suggest that pupil-teacher ratio is an important factor," Faulkenberry said. "So, when we put 20 of our students spread out among five or six groups, there's a lot of one-on-one, one-on-two group interactions, so that will actually benefit the children, as well."
The center, scheduled to open in August, will be a child development and evaluation clinic to train students, giving them firsthand experience in dealing with the nearly 112 small children it will serve.
It also will offer childcare services to the children of students, faculty, staff and community members ages six weeks to five years old.
Center to help fight high school dropout rates
South Carolina high schools rank first in the nation when it comes to students who fail to earn a diploma, according to a study conducted by Johns Hopkins University for the Associated Press (AP).
Two of the three high schools in Florence School District 1 - Wilson High School and South Florence High School - were listed with retention rates of 59 and 54 percent, respectively. As defined by the AP, the retention rate is the amount of students who complete all four years of secondary education.
The study, published in October, stated that one of the primary contributors to high dropout rates is poverty "You're going to notice that kids from poverty are more likely to dropout," said Neal Vincent, principal at South Florence High School.
More than half of South Florence's student body receives free or reduced lunch or is on Medicaid. Vincent said that number is even higher at Wilson High School, where the percentage spiked to 90 percent. About 40 percent of students at West Florence High could be considered poor, he said.
Faulkenberry said many School of Education graduates teach in schools such as those in Florence District 1. "Almost all of them end up teaching in the Pee Dee districts," he said. "I don't know what number of them ends up in Florence District 1, but almost all of them end up teaching in the 19 districts that make up the county."
The hands-on experience students will gain at the Center for the Child will help them prepare to teach children from low-income backgrounds, Faulkenberry said.
"Impoverished children have special needs," he said. "They aren't unlike other special needs (people), the only difference is that they have no legal designation, so they get no special help, like a learning disabled (child) or someone of that nature.
"So, this center is devoted to all the training that goes into helping teachers understand and work with the special needs of children of poverty."
Study might not provide accurate measure
While the AP study mentioned several factors that lead to high dropout rates, some people think it doesn't provide an accurate measure of the state's low graduation rates.
Vincent said the study failed to take several factors into account, such as those who earn their GEDs or are special needs students.
"If you look at our graduation rate, I had 18 (students) earn GEDs," Vincent said. "Those 18 students counted… as if they didn't even graduate because they didn't get a state diploma."
South Florence also had about 18 special-needs students who didn't graduate with a diploma.
"If they learned how to tie a shoe or brush their teeth or whatever their Individual Education Plan said, that was great," Vincent said. "However, since they didn't get a South Carolina diploma, they counted against us."
According to Vincent, those 36 students actually completed the equivalent or "did the best they could do in high school" based on their capabilities. Yet, by provisions set by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), they were considered dropouts.
Faulkenberry said measuring dropout rates isn't easy.
"Dropout rates are notoriously difficult to calculate," Faulkenberry said. "There are a lot of things that aren't taken into account, so the figure isn't nearly as high as proclaimed to be, but having said that, it's too high…"
State not making provisions to improve
Jim Foster, a spokesman for the S.C. Department of Education, said dropout rates are high in South Carolina because of values held by people in the state.
"Part of the problem we've had here is we live in a state that culturally and traditionally has not valued a high school education," Foster told the AP.
Faulkenberry said South Carolina could take more measures to increase graduation rates.
"If the state is genuinely interested in lowering the high school dropout rate, they can do it," he said.
The state is capable of making several revisions to help turn the problem around, including "adequate funding, alternative schools to meet the needs of children and better reporting systems to accurately count the number of dropouts," Faulkenberry said.
Despite a lack of revisions by the state,
Vincent said his and other S.C. schools have been working to increase graduation rates.
"South Florence has always been a good school with tons of potential," Vincent said. "We were below average on the (school) report card last year… so we worked harder this past year and got back to where we were - a 3.4 - and we'll be named a Gold School… by the State Department…"
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