Every school day in America, about 7000 students drop out of school. Fixing and preventing the dropout rate has been and will continue to be a vast challenge for educational systems in our country. The dropout rate poses a problem for the United States nationally as well as in global comparison. Although some improvement has occurred in the last decade, the numbers are still exposing this shocking predicament. There are many national and local initiatives taking place to combat this problem. I will describe one national and one local initiative taking place.
The mission of the National Dropout Prevention Center/Network is to increase high school graduation rates through research and evidence-based solutions. Their website (http://www.dropoutprevention.org/about-us) includes a variety of links that provide helpful information, up-to-date research, family and student resources, information about conferences, program evaluation, statistics, etc. This institution can be a helpful resource to us as leaders in educating students.
The National Dropout Prevention Center/Network has identified 15 effective strategies that they have found make the most positive impact on the dropout rate. On their website you can find more resources, overviews, and model programs revolving around each of these strategies.
1. Systemic Renewal: A continuing process of evaluating goals and objectives related to school policies, practices, and organizational structures as they impact a diverse group of learners.
2. School-Community Collaboration: When all groups in a community provide collective support to the school, a strong infrastructure sustains a caring supportive environment where youth can thrive and achieve.
3. Safe Learning Environments: A comprehensive violence prevention plan, including conflict resolution, must deal with potential violence as well as crisis management. A safe learning environment provides daily experiences, at all grade levels, that enhance positive social attitudes and effective interpersonal skills in all students.
4. Family Engagement: Research consistently finds that family engagement has a direct, positive effect on children's achievement and is the most accurate predictor of a student's success in school.
5. Early Childhood Education: Birth-to-five interventions demonstrate that providing a child additional enrichment can enhance brain development. The most effective way to reduce the number of children who will ultimately drop out is to provide the best possible classroom instruction from the beginning of their school experience through the primary grades.
6. Early Literacy Development: Early interventions to help low-achieving students improve their reading and writing skills establish the necessary foundation for effective learning in all other subjects.
7. Mentoring/Tutoring: Mentoring is a one-to-one caring, supportive relationship between a mentor and a mentee that is based on trust. Tutoring, also a one-to-one activity, focuses on academics and is an effective practice when addressing specific needs such as reading, writing, or math competencies.
8. Service-Learning: Service-learning connects meaningful community service experiences with academic learning. This teaching/learning method promotes personal and social growth, career development, and civic responsibility and can be a powerful vehicle for effective school reform at all grade levels.
9. Alternative Schooling: Alternative schooling provides potential dropouts a variety of options that can lead to graduation, with programs paying special attention to the student's individual social needs and academic requirements for a high school diploma.
10. After-School Opportunities: Many schools provide after-school and summer enhancement programs that eliminate information loss and inspire interest in a variety of areas. Such experiences are especially important for students at risk of school failure because these programs fill the afternoon "gap time" with constructive and engaging activities.
11. Professional Development: Teachers who work with youth at high risk of academic failure need to feel supported and have an avenue by which they can continue to develop skills, techniques, and learn about innovative strategies.
12. Active Learning: Active learning embraces teaching and learning strategies that engage and involve students in the learning process. Students find new and creative ways to solve problems, achieve success, and become lifelong learners when educators show them that there are different ways to learn.
13. Educational Technology: Technology offers some of the best opportunities for delivering instruction to engage students in authentic learning, addressing multiple intelligences, and adapting to students' learning styles.
14. Individualized Instruction: Each student has unique interests and past learning experiences. An individualized instructional program for each student allows for flexibility in teaching methods and motivational strategies to consider these individual differences.
15. Career and Technology Education (CTE): A quality CTE program and a related guidance program are essential for all students. School-to-work programs recognize that youth need specific skills to prepare them to measure up to the larger demands of today's workplace.
A local initiative that is addressing dropout prevention is posted on their website (http://www.gcsssd.org/index.jsp). The Gloucester County Special Services District implemented a “Goals for Youth” program. The goal of this program is to develop permanent goal setting abilities and instill goal oriented attitudes and behavior. This program addresses dropout prevention by instilling in youth a sense of what it takes to succeed in our increasingly complex society. The hope of this program is to enable students to become decision makers who exercise greater control over their own lives.
The Gloucester County Special Services District also has its own Alternative School for students in grades 9-12 who are at risk for not completing high school. This school is focused on the "whole student" in regards to their academic, social, emotional, and behavioral needs. The Alternative School offers a School-to-Careers incentive, comprehensive clinical support, summer programming options and other support to ensure high school completion.
http://www.gcsssd.org/index.jsp
http://www.dropoutprevention.org/about-us
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