Ogden School District Superintendent Brad Smith wants a 90 percent graduation rate from Ogden, Ben Lomond and George Washington high schools in the year 2013. It's an admirable goal that won't be easy to accomplish. Last year the combined graduation rate was 63 percent. To have a chance to achieve the high levels requires a combination of tough requirements and motivation from educators, students, parents and the community.
Motivation can't be defined by a graduate degree, a class size, budgets, or a curriculum. Those are components of what's needed to make successful schools. But to see real progress in our local schools, the student needs to love school, needs to want to learn and take real pride and achievement in learning and personal progress. Parents, educators and the community can provide a foundation of support that motivates these students through public education and a high school graduation.
The most important part in the chain are the parents, or guardians. The success of a student -- positive or negative -- will be affected by the home life of the student. Even the best teacher will be hampered in teaching a child who arrives with no motivation. Communities can help as well. There are countless opportunities to promote public education and show support for what students learn.
It's clear that beyond the Top of Utah, there is also a lot of need for an emphasis on educational improvement. Our state is 42nd in the nation in education, according to Education Week's Quality Counts assessment. We're last in money spent per-pupil. On the plus side, we do spread the money across the state evenly.
According to Quality Counts, we're OK in academic standards, with a B-, but low in academic achievement, with a D-plus. Since the new century, we've seen decreases in graduation rates and disparities in student scores by economic status.
It's unlikely that Utah educators are going to get more money per-pupil, and districts, such as Ogden's, with high economic disparities, are not going away. Motivation, from students, parents, educators and the community, must increase consistently. If that is accomplished, it will lift the other standards higher.
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