In Education Week’s annual report, Diplomas Count 2010, Manny Rivera addresses the use of data in identifying students early on who are in danger of slipping through the cracks.
The signs that students may not last until graduation often show up in the data teachers have collected in elementary and middle school, says Manuel J. Rivera, a former Rochester, N.Y., superintendent who is now the chief executive officer of the New York City-based Global Partnership Schools.
“You begin to see signs long before 9th grade—kids who don’t have interest, and that begins to impact their attendance,” he says. “You see kids who test quite well, but who are completely not engaged in learning.”
They include some students, Rivera says, who are “inappropriately and incorrectly” labeled as having disabilities and end up languishing in special education classes. (more…)
