Anchor Lead:
The number of high school dropouts in Washington state is predicted to grow sharply in the coming years. New research from leading education experts who track graduation rates see a crisis on the horizon. In our ongoing series, The Learning Curve, KPLU's Jennifer Wing introduces us to 19-year-old Brian Morales. His troubled story of poverty, crime and survival reflects the lives of thousands of students who often find high school doesn't work for them. But many, including Brian, still hold onto the hope of getting an education and having a future by passing the GED.

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The Education Pipeline in the United States 1970-2000

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The heavy burdens of an adult life were thrust onto the shoulders of Brian Morales at a very early age. He never met his father, money was scarce and his mother was in and out of jail…once for stabbing another woman in a jealous rage in a fight over a man. Brian calls is mother’s troubles “traffic”

(BM)Traffic is like being out there on the streets, caught up with the wrong crowd and all that. Messing with the wrong people at the wrong time. Just being corrupt period you know

The family eventually moved from Pasadena, California to Nashville Tennessee where at the age of 12 Brian found himself in charge of rearing his younger brothers and sisters. Going to school for him wasn’t an option.

(BM)I didn’t have no children, but they was basically my children because they were small infants. You can’t be like, yeah, I’m gonna take them to what, middle school? What are you doing here, you in the 5th grade and got two little girls with you.

By the time Brian was 13 he started selling crack on street corners to put food on the table.

(BM)Since that’s all I seen, that’s all I wanted to do. So I was like okay, man I’ll put this money on the table we gonna eat good. This is my way of getting us these canned goods, since I have no job. Or since I’m not able to go tot school and better myself.

This lifestyle that was growing more dangerous by the day came to a halt when Brian’s Grandmother moved her grandchildren to her home in Seattle. At 17, Brian enrolled in Garfield High School, where counselors quickly figured out he was so far behind it would take more than 3 years of intense work for him to graduate. So, he was referred to the GED program at the YMCA’s main branch in downtown Seattle where he would get more one on one attention. He came under the guidance of Mary Buza Sims who made another discovery.

(MBS)He could not read. Reading was under a 1.0 grade level. (JW) So his reading level was a half a year of first grade? (MBS) Yes, yes.

Brian now works with a tutor on his reading skills a few days a week.

(BM)Basically I’m learning all over again

He’s lucky to be here. More than 35 high school drop outs are on a waiting list. Sims and other GED instructors across the state expect the numbers to go up significantly in 2008 when students are required to pass the state’s WASL exam to graduate. One GED teacher predicts students will be running from the test and into her program. Last year only 35 percent of the tenth graders who took the WASL passed. Sims knows who she’ll see walking through the door.

(MBS) A lot of the at risk kids have other issues. Social issues Housing issues. Homeless issues, teen pregnancy, drug and alcohol abuse, issues with the law, sexually transmitted diseases. As long as our kids in the inner city are facing those kinds of issues, the symptoms are going to be truancy, drop out. The system as it is now is not addressing the total needs of the kids.

Along with the obvious deadline of the WASL that is raising fears of more students dropping out, something else is happening that foreshadows more students leaving high school. The number of kids in Washington State enrolled in the 9th grade has tripled in the last 20 years. A report released this month from Boston College’s school of education points to layers of reform and high stake testing that have built up over the past 2 decades making it more difficult for 9th graders to advance and causing a block in the education pipeline. There’s a fear that the 9th graders who are being held back today will be tomorrow’s drop outs. Dr. Walter Haney, one of the report’s authors, says children leave school for multiple reasons, especially when they experience failure.

(WH) So what happens is that if a kid is flunked to repeat grade nine the research shows clearly of those who are flunked grade nine, 70-80 percent will not stay in school to graduation.

Haney says schools are not being given the money needed to reach high standards…a trend currently seen in No Child Left Behind Act. He also cites too much emphasis being placed on test results. Haney says when the pressure on schools to raise test scores is too intense and the resources are limited, they’re likely to shed low performing students like Brian Morales. Haney reports this has happened in New York, Texas and Alabama. In Birmingham, schools had to raise student test scores or face a takeover by the state, which would have resulted in administrators losing their jobs.

(WH) Under that intense pressure they administratively dismissed 522 black children. In April those children would have taken the state test, so they kept them enrolled just long enough to get the state reimbursements and them administratively dismissed them before the test was administered.

Haney believes creating smaller learning environments would reverse some of the dismal figures he’s tracking. Leane Hust agrees smaller is better. Hust is the counselor at Seattle’s Garfield High School who got Brian Morales into the program at YMCA. Hust tires her best to keep students enrolled in High School where they receive more years of instruction than in a GED program. She thinks scaled down learning environments would help her reach more kids…kids who aren’t as willing as Brian is to ask for help.

(LH) Brian is the kind of kid that when he seen the resourses or someone who’s helpful, he jumps on it. Not all kids are like that. SO making a school smaller, breaking it into clusters, or having more homerooms or mentors… just make it smaller for those kids who aren’t like Brian.

Brian is doing well. Not only is he learning how to read, but he’s also using his newfound skills to put his thoughts to music with a group he’s formed with his best friend Thomas called “Fallen Solders”.

(BM) It’s enjoying, it’s relaxing, it’s like playing golf, I’m not hitting the ball, I’m letting stuff come off the top of my head. Letting my thoughts and my picture of life be created into words.

Brian still has a lot of ground to make up before taking the GED. Mary Buza Sims says he can stay in the program through his 21st birthday.

You have to understand where he came from and how far he’s come. We’re just being patient so he can finish.

Jennifer Wing(JW), KPLU News: