dropout issues

Those of us who fight to end the dropout epidemic understand the damage that can be done by celebrities who brag about leaving school.

We'd never heard of Emma Stone before today, but apparently she's something of a big deal. After all, next month she's appearing on the cover of Vanity Fair, joining such VF cover girl luminaries as Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton. 

In the accompanying interview, Stone argues that staying in school isn't all its cracked up to be.

From high school dropout — and convicted criminal — to chairman of the powerful Oversight Panel in the U.S. House of Representatives. 

That's the con-to-Congress story that Rep. Darrell Issa stands to tell if Republicans win the House in next week's elections, as they are roundly expected to do.  

School officials in Roanoke, Va., are taking an aggressive approach to improve graduation rates. They're visiting the homes of hundreds of students who didn't show up for school this fall and connecting those students with intervention specialists charged with helping them graduate.

A letter to Andrew Dalton’s “Ask Dad” blog caught our eye this week:

“My kid sucks at math but I suck worse. I was a high school dropout. We can't afford a tutor. How do I help her?”

Each year, thousands of U.S. high school students drop out of school in order to raise a child, sacrificing their own opportunities in order to give their children a better life.

Except that’s not where the sacrifice ends.

A teacher at Shadle Park High School in Spokane, Wash. has been placed on administrative leave for distributing lyrics from the song "Commencement Day" by Seattle hip hop group Blue Scholars on the first day of school.

The song — ironically, a rap about censorship at school — rails against a system that fails to graduate so many students and praises those who make it to graduation day.

“It goes one for the student who refuses to submit

Teachers and administrators who are fighting to keep their students in school aren't just struggling against economic, social, cultural forces.

They're also fighting a Siren's song of diploma mills like this one.