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The symposium was sponsored by the V.I. Department of Education.
Students, panelists, educators and community activists, while tossing around various causes and solutions, often returned to the importance of teachers.
Senate President Louis P. Hill painted a picture of his childhood in Dominica.
"At age 5, I started school with no academic preparation," Hill told the packed room at the university’s conference center. At age 12, Hill took a test to continue onto high school. Upon graduation from secondary school, Hill became a teacher for 7-, 8- and 9-year-olds in his country—before pursuing a bachelor’s and then a master’s degree.
Hill said he had all the classic symptoms that could have set him up to be a dropout: lack of preparation for school and extreme poverty, being two of them.
"For most of my life, I went to school without shoes," Hill said, adding that his classroom was often under a tree due to overcrowded classrooms. "The major and only reason for my success was my teachers," Hill said. "They took the time to mentor me."
Conversely, in a focus group of mostly students who had been invited to attend the symposium, several felt strongly it was teachers who were forcing the borderline students out the door.
Raynord Malone, an 11th-grader at Ivanna Eudora Kean High School, told a story about a young man who had gotten in a lot of trouble—eventually being sent to The Youth Rehabilitation Center on St. Croix—but who decided to turn his life around. “When he came back to school,” said Malone, “he was already labeled, and many teachers kept him down.”
Malone feels that when it comes to a student’s education, they should always be given another chance. “There is no one there to help them but always someone there to escort them out,” said Malone.
Malone finished his presentation by saying,“ We need teachers who will go the extra mile to understand students’ needs. Know your students and communicate with them. Teachers first see the signs leading up to dropout and need to try their best to help the student stay in school.”
Bertha C. Boschulte teacher Carol Callwood expressed a similar sentiment. “Some teachers should be encouraged to leave,” she said.
Callwood also feels that kids in trouble are not given a chance to improve. “When a child is treated as lacking possibilities,” said Callwood, “the child then gives up.”
Other factors contributing to the territory’s high dropout rate are a lack of truancy officers, lax attitudes from parents and the community about school attendance, absence of education as a priority, and an already-thriving community of under-educated parents.
"When your ninth-grader comes home with algebra homework and you have a third-grade education, what are you going to say," asked Labor Commissioner Albert Bryan.
Winona Henricks, chairwoman of the Board of Education, said, “The best teachers need to be placed with the high-risk students, not the other way around.” Hendricks also said she felt the borderline students were being pushed out due to the hostile and punitive environment at many schools.
Few other solutions came out of Tuesday’s daylong conference. A concrete promise from Hill that he would introduce legislation to keep students out of retail establishments during school hours was one.
Kurt Vialet, principal of Education Complex on St. Croix, said he had approached the Legislature with this suggestion some time ago. Although it is a practice in other jurisdictions, he said he got nowhere.
Both student and adult focus groups voiced the need for mentors to guide the students at risk and provide additional educational support in areas where they are lagging behind.
Those solutions were in line with those presented by keynote speaker Russell Rumberger, a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara’s Graduate School of Education. Rumberger has been conducting research on school dropouts for the past 25 years and presented the audience with recommendations from the newly published Dropout Prevention Practice Guide.
The recommendations included giving students opportunities for credit recovery; recognizing student accomplishments; establishing partnerships with agencies such as social services, welfare, mental health and law enforcement; creating smaller classes; and establishing small learning communities.
“It’s easier to build trust in a smaller environment,” said Rumberger.
Law enforcement did have a presence at the symposium in the form of Sgt. Winsbut McFarlande Sr., the territory’s new gang unit coordinator. McFarlande is working diligently to find alternatives for those kids enticed by the gang lifestyle, going into the schools and working with young males.
Gov. John deJongh Jr. spoke to the audience about the economic and social impact of dropouts in the territory and provided alarming statistics from 2006-07, indicating that the V.I. public school dropout rate for teens, ages 16-19, was 13.8 percent—nearly double the national dropout rate of 7 percent.
“What is even more alarming,” said deJongh, “is that if you isolate the data to grades 9 to 10, you see a significant increase in the actual dropout numbers, indicating we not only lose them young but that we may not recapture them."
DeJongh said that although some may question the accuracy of the data collected, we must accept the premise that “any percentage is too high and unacceptable when it comes to our children.”
Education Commissioner LaVerne Terry said she's hopeful the symposium will help as the department looks to develop new strategies to increase the territory’s graduation rate.