Fixing and Preventing Dropout

Over one million students in the United States that enter ninth grade each year will never graduate with their peers four years later. About seven thousand students dropout of school everyday. Only until recently, true dropout rates and graduation rates have begun to be exposed, and the US can see the extent of the crisis in our high schools. Ultimately, graduation rates reflect how well our schools are performing.
Who is Dropping Out
In an article from the “Alliance for Excellent Education”, they found that minority students and students from low-income families were far more likely to dropout. Each year, approximately 1.2 million students never graduate high school and more than have of them are from minority groups. Nationally, about 71 percent of students graduate from high school on time. African American and Hispanic students, though, are half as likely to earn diplomas with their peers.
A 16 to 24 year old student coming from the highest quartile of family income is about seven times more likely to have completed high school than a 16 to 24 year old student coming from the lowest quartile of family income.
A small number of underperforming high schools are responsible for more than half of our nation’s dropouts. Alliance for Excellent Education found that approximately two thousand high schools (about 12%of US high schools) are responsible for more than half of the nation’s dropouts. In these high schools, the senior class only comprises 60% or less of the same class its freshman year.
Why Do Students Drop Out?
Although there are many different reasons for dropping out of high school, research has found that difficult transitions to high school, deficient basic skills, and a lack of engagement are strong influences and barriers for high school students. Researchers have found that dropouts can often be indentified in middle school and as early has sixth grade. Systems to track student attendance, engagement while in school, and academic performance help identify students who are at risk of not graduating when they reach high school.
The ninth grade year for a student is also a strong predictor for future success or failure in school. Alliance for Excellent Education found that up to 40 percent of ninth grade students in cities with the highest dropout rates repeat ninth grade (which research has shown that retention is not likely a good solution). Of these retained ninth graders, only 10 to 15 percent of them go on to graduate. Therefore, academic success in ninth grade is highly predictive of future graduation. It is found to be even more important than demographic characteristics or prior academic achievement. Unfortunately, many ninth graders are not given the support they need to make a successful transition to high school and a third of dropouts are caused because of their ninth grade year.
Not only is high school academics important to graduation, but so is social engagement in school. They may feel no connections to their fellow peers or even their teachers. Many dropouts reported having no significant connection to an adult and no one to talk to. Research shows that lack of student engagement is predictive of dropping out, even after controlling for academic achievement and student background (Rumberger, 2004).
Boredom in high school is also a cause of dropout. Gifted students are also dropping out due to the lack of interest in the curriculums. Research from Civic Enterprises suggested that 90% of the drop outs had passing grades, but left because classes were too boring.
Why We Need to Fix the Dropout Rate
Decades ago, dropping out of high school was not as detrimental to a student; they were still able to find jobs. Today though, dropping out of high school greatly diminishes their chances of finding a good job and having security in their future. Students who dropout are more likely to be unemployed, in poor health, living in poverty, on public assistance, and become single parents. Additionally, dropouts are also not the only ones suffering. They significantly impact the financial and social costs to the communities, states, and country in which they live in.
Dropouts hurt our nation’s competitive edge. The US ranks 18th in high school graduation rate among developed countries. High school dropouts earn less income and contribute fewer tax dollars to the economy. It has been found that on average, a high school dropout earns about $260,000 less than a high school graduate (Rouse, 2005). The dropouts of the class of 2009 alone will cost the nation more than $319 billion in lost wages over the course of their lifetimes and $17 billion in Medicaid and expenditures for uninsured health care. In the article “How America Can Build a Better Future”, the authors explained that if the graduation rates for Hispanic and African American students are raised to those of white students by 2020, the potential increase in personal income would add more than $310 billion to the US economy.
Fixing the dropout rate will save billions of dollars by reducing the US’s crime related costs, health care related costs, and public assistance costs. About 41 percent of inmates in state and federal prisons have less than a high school education. Schooling significantly reduces criminal activity—self-reported crime, arrests, and incarceration. Increasing the high school completion rate of men ages 20–60 by one percent would save the US as much as $1.4 billion per year in criminal justice costs. If the US could cut the number of high school dropouts in a single cohort of 20-year-olds (approximately 700,000 individuals) in half, the country would gain $45 billion through extra tax revenue and reduced public health, crime and justice, and welfare payment costs.
How We Can Fix Dropout
Obama has proposed giving $900 million in federal grants to states and school districts that agree to turn around. To qualify for the School Turnaround Grants, the school districts would need to agree to a series of criteria, including: firing the principal and at least half the staff; reopening as a charter school; close the school all together and transfer students to better schools in the district.
The National Education Association believes that dropouts can be prevented through focused actions using strategies from preschool thorough age 21. These strategies include:
1. Intervene prior to kindergarten;
2. Involve families in students’ learning;
3. Provide students with individual attention;
4. Monitor students to track their academic progress;
5. Involve the community in dropout prevention;
6. Provide educators with the training and resources they need to prevent students from dropping out;
7. Implement career and workforce readiness programs in schools;
8. Provide graduation options for students;
9. Raise the compulsory school attendance age;
10. Open graduation centers for students who are 19–21 years of age;
11. Gather and report accurate dropout rates;
12. Increase federal funding to support dropout prevention.
I think that we need to focus on students’ transitions into schools, especially during major milestones like elementary school to middle school and middle school to high school. The school staff needs to make sure that they are adjusting socially as well as academically. Additionally, a better job needs to be done in making sure children are ready and able for school – as in proper nutrition, health care, housing, etc. We also need to make sure that they have a positive adult figure in their life if that person is not a family member.
As for curriculum, we need to make sure that it is relevant to all of our students. Students need to have more choice in what courses they take and a say in the curriculum that they are learning. Also, we need to remember that not all students are on the college-track and that is okay. In these situations we need to offer alternative classes, which could include trade type classes, finance, economics, conflict management classes, family planning, etc. Schools could also help those students not going on to college find shadowing and internship experiences in their jobs of choice after high school graduation. As a country, we need to put in the extra money for our students now, so that we will not be continuing to pay for them in the future. There is no way the economy can get better without improving our education system and increasing our graduation rates.