By Mark Wineka
mwineka@salisburypost.com
Dr. Suzanne W. Morse, an outsider looking in, gives Salisbury high marks in areas such as the arts, health care and cost of living.
But she sounded a strong warning Thursday about low reading and math scores among students in Salisbury elementary schools.
The percentage of third-grade students not reading at grade level is usually a good prediction of high school dropout rates later, she said.
Salisbury also has a poverty level exceeding the national average and a high property and violent crime index, according to the Charlottesville, Va., civic researcher.
Speaking at both a Salisbury City Council retreat Thursday morning and later at a city-sponsored luncheon, Morse said the Salisbury community must mobilize to get students prepared for the 21st century.
“It’s time to stop it right now,” Morse said especially of halting the trend in low reading scores among third-graders. “… Somewhere this has got to stop.”
Morse, president of the Pew Partnership for Civic Change and author of the book “Smart Communities,” said low test scores among young students are not really a school problem but a community issue that has come to school.
Smart communities find ways of addressing the problem outside of classrooms, such as a summer reading academy set up in Richmond, Va., to offer intensive summer training for third-graders who weren’t reading at grade level.
“Everybody in Salisbury is responsible for teaching these kids,” Morse said, warning that if a student is behind in the eighth grade, the odds are he or she won’t complete high school in four years.
These same kids as adults are often unemployable, drain community resources and contribute to the crime rate, Morse said.
The country loses $263 billion a year because of high school dropouts. Dropouts earn 25 to 40 percent less over their lifetimes, they die an average of 10 years earlier than graduates, and they are more likely to have children who are dropouts, Morse said.
The low school scores also relate to the poverty level and crime statistics, Morse suggested.
In Salisbury, 25 percent of the children ó one out of four ó live in poverty, and 15 percent of all families fall below the national poverty line.
On a scale of one to 10, with the national average being three, Salisbury’s property and violent crime index is seven, Morse said.
Morse said Salisbury has to invest more in early childhood education for the most at-risk children.
“Every child in Salisbury needs a good start,” she said. “… In a city the size of Salisbury, you know these children. … This is an investment that keeps on giving.”
She also urged the city leaders to keep kids in school. Having a third of high school students ending up as dropouts is like an industry losing a third of its inventory before it even leaves the plant, she said.
Later Thursday, Mayor Susan Kluttz said Morse told city officials things they needed to hear.
Kluttz noted it has been 20 years since the city and county school systems merged, and in those 20 years, the city has maintained an arms-length distance from the schools, not wanting to interfere with the business of the Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education or the Rowan County Board of Commissioners.
“Frankly, I think it’s time we’re going to have to step back in,” Kluttz said.
Things are being blamed on schools and educators that are really social problems, Kluttz said, agreeing with a point Morse made.
“If 25 percent of our children live in poverty,” Councilman Mark Lewis said, “what does that say about our community and what can we do about it?”
Councilman Bill Burgin said the community must make the connection that having 25 percent of its children living in poverty has a big impact on the 75 percent who aren’t.
Kluttz and City Manager David Treme wondered aloud if the city could go beyond the one-on-one mentoring that council members and city employees are involved in to sponsor a summer reading academy.
The city might have the personnel and facilities to help hundreds of children, they suggested.
Council’s retreat continues today at the Heritage Room on East Council Street, City Hall on South Main Street and the Rowan Museum on North Main Street.