An Analysis of Performance Differences Between Self-Directed and Teacher-Directed Alternative Education Campuses in Texas Page: 26
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a period of fifteen years when education reform was supposedly making great strides in meeting
student needs, six million students dropped out of American high schools before receiving a
diploma (Leiding, 2008). The Harvard Civil Rights Project (2005) stated that California was
losing 29% of students to dropout status, with only 50.2% of minority students receiving a
diploma. In Texas, during the 20 year span from 1986 to 2006, there were 2,533,169 students
lost in the dropout crisis (Cortez, 2007). Total costs to the state for these losses will accumulate
to $730.1 billion within the 40 year working life span of these individuals (Johnson, 2006). In
2005, Gottlob (2008) reported the dropout rate in Texas as 67%. The education of tomorrow's
adults, and the need to increase their potential for success, calls for a focus on the individual
within the classroom.
Personalization of Learning
Wang and Wahlberg (1985) contend that learners are first and foremost human. Rather
than merely learning cognitively, humans can be affected by external variables such as status,
social ranking, gender issues, and more that will affect the cognitive assimilation of information
and overall development of the individual. While the education reform created by the shift in the
mid 80s changed the direction of schooling in our nation, the impetus for this change was largely
political (Stedman, 1983). The major shift in education was administrative in nature and focused
on changing overall outcomes and program direction. The individual student was not a major
concern during the shift.
However, in the 1990s, some educators began a serious push toward personalizing the
educational process. These educators called for a focus on individualization and for campuses to
begin taking personal accountability for all students.
Dunn (1996) maintains, "When legislative groups, state education departments, boards of26
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Wimberley, Alan. An Analysis of Performance Differences Between Self-Directed and Teacher-Directed Alternative Education Campuses in Texas, dissertation, May 2010; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc30430/m1/32/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .