Falling graduation rates and an increase in teen pregnancies have led some Montgomery County officials to call for more school programs designed for job training rather than college preparation.
The graduation problem is especially acute among Hispanic and African American female students in the county, where graduation rates over the decade have fallen faster than their male counterparts. In 2009, 84 percent of African American women graduated from Montgomery County schools, down from 93 percent in 2002. Among Hispanic women, 80 percent graduated in 2009, down from 90 percent in 2002.
In the same time period, the county’s graduation rate for white women has stayed the same at 95 percent. The most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed an increase in the county’s teen births to 612 in 2006, from 516 in 2002, accounting for almost 5 percent of the county’s births. Rates among white and black teens fell slightly, but increased rapidly among the county’s growing population of Hispanic students.
The issues arose at a County Council meeting last week addressing a recent report on single mothers and poverty, released by the Montgomery County Commission for Women. According to the report, families headed by a single woman make up nearly half of the county’s families with incomes below the poverty line, or about $21,000 per year for a family of four.
Superintendent Jerry Weast’s “focus is to make every child college ready, but we know that means we’re leaving out a lot of kids,” said Councilwoman Valerie Ervin, who serves as chair of the education committee.
Ervin recommended turning the district’s vocational school, Thomas Edison, from a half-day program into a full-day alternative school. “A growing number of students don’t see their way to college, so a lot are dropping out at 16 and 17 years old, and what options do we have for them?” Ervin said. The school system has made great strides in enrolling more students of all races in advanced placement courses, but that hasn’t stemmed the falling graduation rates.
Authors of the report cited several other recommended changes to county policy, including allowing education to fulfill the work requirement for welfare recipients, and the creation of training programs for low-income women to “help them escape occupational ghettos.” [email protected]
