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Times-Advocate, 1988-03-09, Page 20Page 4A Times -Advocate, March 9, 1988 Huron high schools have high 'retained' rate By Yvonne Reynolds "Ridiculous" "Shortsighted." "The man hasn't grasped half the is- sues confronting educators." This was South Huron arid Dis- trict High School principal Bruce Shaw's reaction to the Radwanski report which burst like a bomb on the education scene recently. "The Ontario Study of the Rele- vance of Education, the the Issue of Drop -outs" was commissioned by provincial education minister Chris Ward, who appointed Toronto Star editor George Radwanski a year ago to study Ontario high schools with particular emphasis on why so many students do not complete their education. - Recommendations Beginning a child's education at age three, abolishing streaming, phasing out the credit system, hav- ing program content prescribed on a province -wide basis by the ministry of education with selection of peda- gogical techniques for successfully imparting that.content delegated to local authorities, every student as- signed to a teacher responsible for monitoring that student's progress, making students aware of the inher- ent damage of "excessive" part-time work during the school year and the business community cognizant of the social irresponsibility of provid- ing this part-time work, replacing the policy of automatic social pro- motion of children who arc signifi- cantly behind grade level with en- rollment- in summer remediation programs, and the provision of in- fant -care and day-care facilities by every school board are among Rad- wanski's ad- wanskis proposals for improving education in Ontario's high schools. Dropout rate The report claims, that while only 12 percent of students in the ad- vanced stream leave school before graduation, the dropout rate is 62 percent among those taking general level course, and 79 percent among basic level students. Radwanski contends that "taking into account both the dropout problem and the very serious deficiencies of the bas- ic and general streams of study, it may very well be that only the 52 percent of young people who suc- cessfully complete the advanced stream are getting anything ap- proaching an adequate high school education". Huron county statistics Shaw takes issue with both some of Radwanski's findings and some of his recommendations. He disa- grees with Radwanski's findings on the current dropout rate. Statistics from Huron County paint an entirely different picture. The five local secondary schools calculate on a "retained" rate, count- jng. each student who enters grade nine and stays in school until grad - pointing out that Radwanski neither contacted the Huron board nor asked it to submit figures on its drop-out rate. Shaw also suspects that stu- dents who left school for a good job and those who are continuing their REFUTES REPORT - SHDHS principal Bruce Shaw maintains that many of the findings of the Radwanski report are not applicable to Huron county high school. uation. Last year an average of 76.54 percent of students entering the grade 9 program in county high schools stayed to earn their diplo- mas. . Figures from the individual schools show that Central Huron in Clinton, which is classed as a tech- nical school, has a retained rate of 57.07 percent. The figure for F.E. Madill in Wingham„ a composite high school offering both vocation- al and academic courses, is 76.47. The.rate for the primarily academic high school in Goderich is 78.03. Seaforth District High School boasts an astounding 92.75 percent retained rate, and SHDHS, a fully composite school, has a rate of 78.37. "This report has to be held sus- pect. It is not thorough or coni- plete. It's almost as though he just talked to the Toronto board and a few city principals", Shaw said, education through night school or correspondence courses were includ- ed in the drop-out count. "Many of the ministry's policies and programs don't affect rural or urban Ontario except around the Golden Horseshoe. The ministry of education often seems to say that what's good for Toronto is good for Huron county", Shaw added. Changes over the years During his 24 years as an educa- tor - the last 12 as administrator - Shaw has seen at first hand the shaping and reshaping of the prov- ince's school system, and.thc pen- dulum swings from rigid adherence to compulsory curriculums to al- lowing students to "do their own thing" and now back to the centre again. - The fifties saw the emergence of central schools in rural areas to pro- vide the technical and vocational fa- -cilities for surrounding collegiates. At one time three busloads of stu- dents at a time travelled regularly from SHDHS to Central Huron in Clinton for the tech programs not then available in Exeter. The great advances in technology in the US and Russia precipitated a change of emphasis in the sixties when John Robarts was premier of Ontario. District high schools were given incredible amounts of money Midget Panthers competitive Friday, February 26, the Midget Panthers basketball team competed - in the playoffs in Listowel. A hard- fought loss to 'Stratford Northwest- ern put the team into the Consola- tion round. PRAYER AT HENSALL - Hensall UCW president Dianne Gerstenkorn (left) and PCW president Margaret Hoggarth welcome the Reverend Doug Wright as guest speaker at Carmel Presbyterian Church for Friday's World Day of Prayer. Looking for Opportunities to Grow? Due to a growing number of clients, a leading international financial institution will be appointing 2 sales/marketing representatives in London and the surrounding area. A background in teaching or financial services, for example, banking, trust company, insurance, etc. would be helpful but not a requirement as intensive training is provided. It includes staff services, sales and computer support tailored to our full range of financial products and services. The income potential will surprise you! For a personal, confidential interview, phone or send a resume to: Ralph M. Earle, CLU Branch Manager Sun Life of Canada 1010-383 Richmond St. London, Ontario N6 3C4 4321 SunLife John Paul Maurer and Bevan Moir played very well in the first game and Dave Schwindt and Brett Borden .were high scorers. The second game against Norwell started out close, but Panthers showed their tcam abilities and walked away with a 79-55 win. Schwindt and Chris "Airborne" Atigerman had 20 points each while Steve DuBarry, Mark Russell and Jeremy Hrudka took care of the re- bounds. The Consolation final was also very well played. F.R. Madill proved to be a little more able to control the play and came away with a 56-48 win. Panthers played well and kept the game very competitive. Brett Ride- out turned in a good effort. Good, performances from Jcff Kerslake, Corey Sargeant, Pete McAllister and Jim Ahrens kept the game within reach. Coaches Pete Healey and George McEwan feel very good about the players' improvement and look for- ward to next season. - Molting Hawks Exeter Molting Hawks claimed a 4-2 victory over Forest Oldtimers at the South Huron Rec Centre, in- creasing their season record to 25 wins, 14 Losses and five ties. Ken Bergman picked up two goals in the effort while singles went to Brian Hodgins and Ron Moore. Public relations people are hired to avert situations that would never hap- pen if there were no public relations people. On location or Studio Bart DeVries" PHOTOGRAPHY ( OMMIR( IAI - WrMANTA PORTRAITS • G801.1rS PUP WITT Telephone 21C-1298 117 Thamcc Rd., ra+1, r�ctcr Ont. 1 to expand, add technical courses, and become composite schools of- fering all options under one roof. "Streaming" was introduced in 1964. This meant that students de- cided at the end of grade 10 whether to head for the academic, commer- cial or technical programs. All courses were designed for these three levels. Even fundamental sub- jects like English and geography came in three packages: academic, technical and commercial. Along came the Hall -Dennis re- port in 1968, responding to the new freedoms in society with the concept that education should centre around developing the students' per- sonal skills. (This has sincc been dubbed the "me" generation.) For a period of two years all courses were given equal value. English was no longer compulsory, and was reduced from eight to five weekly classes. The standard provincial grade 13 exams were abolished in 1969. Each school set wn exams, and the number of Ontario scholars blossomed. A review in the seventies led to the introduction of a crcdit system with compulsory courses, but the majority were still optional. Now, in the eighties, the system has been reorganized once more. Of the 30 courses a student may take, 16 are compulsory. Each course consists of so many hours, and a student must complete a specified number of hours on each course. The most recent change has bccn in streaming, not by areas of inter- est as in the Robarts era; but by ac- ademic ability. The three levels are advanced, general level and basic. Present system is working Although Shawwould like to see some refinements, he insists the present system is working, and it is serving the students well. The high standards maintained in Huron high schools could even short-change Huron county students. For exam- ple, a Huron student could conceiv- ably be given an 81 average for the same performance that earns a Lon- don student an 86, giving the other student an edge -in applying -for ad- mittance to engineering at Water - loo, which requires an 83. Shaw suggested some form of ex- ternal evaluation would be of assis- tance in standardizing university en- trance exams. 1 question the value of the Onta- rio Secondary School diploma now taking the place of the old grade 12 and 13 diplomas", Shaw said, de- scribing the present diploma as "a social document rathcr than proof of achievement". Shaw vigorously refutes Radwan- ski's contention that schools are failing their students miserably.. "We produce a good product - ma- ture students capable of serious aca- demic work", Shaw asserted, citing yearly replies from universities showing that SHDHS graduates do better in university than, in grade 13. He noted too that .SHDHS grads won five of the 13 Huron County scholarships offered last year. The basic level students, the ones having most difficulty in school, have the highest drop-out rate. The spire them. Maybe that's the job of the guidance teachers, but I think giving students the impression the principal takes an interest has a pos- itive effect", Shaw said. Shaw accompanied one student to UWO to support the student's plea to be allowed to register after the normal cut-off date. The registrar said he could not recall a principal ever coming with a student before. The student did enroll, and has promised Shaw a copy of his diplo- ma. Should - lead to debate Shaw believes the Radwanski re- port will open up a lively debate on secondary education, and that will be all to the good: The belief is shared by Bob Allen, director of education for the Huron Board. he expressed the desire to have Radwanski engaged in a "good, animated debate where he could de- fend his report, and others could at- tack it'. He added that "these kinds of exercises shouldn't be dismissed schools in Huron arc trying to pro-. vide courses to keep them in school until they have earned their 30 cred- its. Radwanski concluded that aliena- tion is a major cause of students dropping out. He should have visit- ed SHDHS. Shaw keeps a register on his desk, and -personally secs every student who has 'failed three courses: "I care about the kids. I try twin - out of hand, as RadwanFki was as- signed to address the very real prob- lem of the student dropout rate in Ontario high schools. People have until June 10 to react to the report. A discussion initiated at the regular March session of the Huron board of education on Mon- day marked the beginning of local response. The board's position will be formulated and sent to the mini- stry of education by the deadline. 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