Group tackles dropout crisis

Ebony Baylis said that she was "pushed out" of the Philadelphia School District when she was 8 or 9 years old and attending Lowell Elementary School, in Olney.

"I was quiet; I did my work," Baylis said yesterday after a Youth United for Change news conference at City Hall about the school dropout crisis.

When a boy in her school began to bully her, Baylis said, her teacher told her that she'd take care of it.

"But it went on and on every day until I had to take matters into my own hands," Baylis said.

"So I acted out, and I hurt that boy."

Baylis was suspended. Then she was suspended a few more times because of her response to the bullying.

Finally, her mother took Baylis out of school and started to home-school her.

The family moved to Georgia for a few years, where Baylis continued to be home-schooled, but when she returned here at age 18, the district refused to accept her credits. Baylis gave up and got a GED.

Now 21 and a first-year student at Harcum College, Baylis was one of several students who helped Youth United for Change conduct a study on the city's low high-school graduation rate.

The report, "Pushed Out: Youth Voices on the Dropout Crisis in Philadelphia," found that only 57 percent of Philadelphia's students graduate from high school within four years; 63 percent graduate within six years, the report said.

The study argues that many city students don't "drop out" of school, as much as they are "pushed out" by faulty disciplinary policies and teaching, and by classroom situations that alienate students and their parents.

The report found that four major themes contribute to the "Pushout Crisis":

* Boredom and engagement: 59 percent who left school cited this reason.

* Teaching and classroom learning: 59 percent cited this.

* Discipline and climate: 57 percent had problems with discipline.

* Out-of-school issues: 52 percent had personal or family problems that led them to leave school.

At the news conference, Baylis said that student researchers surveyed 273 "pushed-out youth" on why they left school and what could have kept them from being pushed out.

The study found that young people were bored and alienated by being given worksheets or constantly being drilled to take standardized tests. Some children complained that their school felt like a prison. Others said that large class sizes meant that teachers had no time to work with struggling students. The report said that parents were treated poorly when they sought help for their children.

Tomas Hanna, district associate superintendent, said that the students' figures on the dropout rates were accurate. "Who better to hear from [on this issue] than the young people who have been in our system?" he asked. He said that the district is working with youth organizations to make some of the changes suggested in the report.

"We've been working to get out-of-school suspensions down by 16 percent," Hanna said.