Although not a particularly appealing fashion statement, little black G.P.S. monitors might become a regular fashion faux pas in schools around the country. Bryan Adams High School in Texas is strapping some of its students with Global Positioning Systems to curb truancy and combat the city’s alarmingly low graduation rate. Dallas’s graduation rate among large school districts scales the bottom seven.
The East Dallas school began the six-week pilot program to keep its kids in the classroom in hopes of meeting stricter guidelines imposed by the No Child Left Behind Act.
An assigned caseworker “monitors the students and works with parents and teachers” to keep students on the straight and narrow—a favorable alternative to juvenile detention.
If this program proves successful, other schools might soon follow suit, accessorizing compulsively truant students with G.P.S. units. If a little extreme, the method seems to do the job. Schools have an effective and safe way to enforce classroom attendance.
As formerly truant students walk the halls, donned in sneakers, jeans and a black G.P.S. box hooked to their belts, Bryan Adams high can find comfort its kids are where they belong: in the classroom.
Read the full story from the New York Times here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/12/education/12dallas.html?ref=education
