Dropouts: Attitudes and Antidotes

I have to admit that I didn't fully appreciate the dropout crisis while serving as a public school superintendent. While budgeting for my third year, I recall asking why there were fewer students in each class from 9 to 12--the drop off seemed to be higher than the publicly reported 93% (which turned out to be the percentage of seniors that received diplomas). It didn't really hit me until a few years later when my daughter's class graduated and only 400 of the class of 600 were there that day. I remember counting names in the program, doing the math, and spending the next 90 minutes wondering where the other 200 young people were. That moment, where drop out math became real and personal, resulted in spending the next 10 years working on the problem.

Graduation rates are hard to calculate but we know that about half of low income and minority students fail to graduate. The causes are complicated. Perhaps most foundational are our attitudes about and aspirations for young people. On the Front Lines of Schools, a report by Civic Enterprises, explores attitudes of teachers and principals in regards to the drop out crisis in America.

Here's the most disturbing finding: "Less than one-third of teachers (32 percent) believed we should expect all students to meet high academic standards, graduate with the skills to do college-level work, and provide extra support to struggling students to help them meet those standards."

"Only 20 percent of teachers and 21 percent of principals felt boredom was a factor in most cases of high school dropout. " After visiting hundreds of high schools, I think about 95% are boring--just measure the energy level in the hallway versus classroom. We've succeeded in making learning boring.

"Less than one-third of teachers believe that schools should expect all students to meet high academic standards, graduate with the skills to do college-level work, and provide extra support to struggling students to help them meet those standards. "All students college ready' is admittedly a tall order but without the expectation that all kids should at least be able to pass a community college placement exam and start earning credit with out remediation, young people are virtually shut out of family wage employment.

"Eighty-one percent of teachers and 89 percent of principals felt their school was doing a good or excellent job." If we take seriously the task of preparing young people for the world they will inherit, the real number is probably 20% good or excellent (and not much higher in the private schools).

Here's the one where I agree with teachers, "Sixty-one percent of teachers and 45 percent of principals felt lack of support at home was a factor in most cases of students' dropping out." No question that this crisis is a complicated mixture of culture and delivery. I'm not blaming historically underserved neighborhoods--just recognizing that a culture of college-bound expectations makes it far easier for schools to deliver results.

Here's three people attacking the drop out crisis with some success:

• Bill Milliken, founder of Communities in Schools, the nation's largest dropout prevention network. Read Bill's book The Last Dropout for the full story.

• Dennis Littky and Elliott Washor co-founded Big Picture Learning, a global network of 70 personalized urban schools with a 92% graduation rate. They also lead the development of the Alternative High School Initiative, a group of 12 youth development organizations creating schools for the least well served students in America.

• John Murray runs AdvancePath Academics, a network of academies that help over aged/under credited students catch up and graduate on time. John is also past chair of the National Dropout Prevention Network.

It's a complicated problem, but it comes down to people that care enough to do something about it. And these guys are changing lives.

Follow Tom Vander Ark on Twitter: www.twitter.com/tvanderark

Comments

[hey0there]

mandatory school uniforms, start there at the state level. kids can concentrate on study more than what new kicks Kevin is wearing or how Ashley is stretching the dress code to the limit with her skintight top

School in America is more of a playground now than a school.

[InspireToLearn]

“Eighty-one percent of teachers and 89 percent of principals felt their school was doing a good or excellent job.” This quote on Tom Vander Ark’s article says it all.

You can’t change what you don’t acknowledge!

For the most part, education has become irrelevant to most students. It’s not about entertaining students…it’s about finding what their strengths and interests are and facilitating their learning in these areas while incorporating others. Students need to be asked the questions and adults need to facilitate the responses: How can school work better for you? What changes would you suggest? How can we work as a team to accomplish your goals? If you facilitate students’ engagement in learning, it will come naturally and willingly over time. If you force students to learn in ways that are not natural for them, you will meet up with resistance. I have worked with many students over the years InspireToLearn.comm) and have found that students don’t want to leave school when they feel a sense of relatedness to their school community and a voice in the process of learning.
Rachelle Wolosoff, Ed.D.
InspireToLearn.com
InspireToLearn.comLearn.com

[davism97]

It's an idea worth considering.

[TopProf]

It's not that complicated, really. Look closely at the data (not just your daughter's high school class). Ethnicity, gender, social class all correlate with completion. But of all correlates, the highest correlate (with those other factors held constant) is age for one's grade. Specifically, retention in grade overshadows all the rest. Being one year behind causes the probability of dropping out to soar. Being two or more years behind one's age mates raises that probability of dropping out to nearly one hundred percent. Take two kids of the same, relatively low level of achievement. Retain one, promote the other. The one promoted is much more apt to graduate than the one retained. This is the overwhelming state of the research evidence. Yes, it is counter-intuitive, but it is true. The rate of retention has soared in the age of high stakes accountability testing, like we have observed in Chicago. The get-tough policies of our great basketball playing Secretary of Education are complete, utter failures. Blame the teachers' expectations all you want, but you can't verify your point of view. It's your opinion and nothing else.

[Gardencc]

When the institution of education is studied across cultures, it's purpose becomes apparent: train the youth of a society to become successful adults in their society. How, exactly is that happening in education here in the United States? Simple: it isn't. Simply getting students into college (44% of which are taking remedial education because they cannot do college level work and half of whom don't finish) does not guarantee that they will become successful adults. Half of all college grads are not able to find work that uses their level of education. Adults in the US are expected to work, but have studied the job market. Our young adults know little about what skills are in demand and which fields are growing, how to pick a job that uses their abilities or effective job search skills.

Of course drop outs are bored. In California, 82% of high school dropouts are not failing their classes. They simply see no connection between their studies and their futures.

Research shows that students who have career maturity (decent grades and a career focus) don't drop out and do go on to community college and, or, university. Research also shows that students are most interested in career exploration at age 14 and 15, not when they are ready to graduate.

How sad that the country that outspends the world on armaments has an education system that has no clue how to prepare the young of it's society for life as successful adults.

[Nommo]

Education has failed in a most fundamental way. It is, or has been, incapable of keeping up with its constituency. By extension it has failed to keep up with the world at large. The large and overweening bureaucracies that have attempted to run education have been self serving in the face of a voiceless and captive subjects. Same captives whose fault it always seems to be. Or whose inadequacy is beyond the ability of the institution to comprehend

There are so many levels of failure it is inconceivable that any solution that fails to address the multiple areas where students and education do not connect, will be a failure itself. So much analysis, so little simple action.

[hopehappens]

When was the last time you were in an inner city classroom? I just completed my first and probably last school year as an English teacher in an inner city high school. I have a whole new set of questions and not many answers. I do know this: I have never seen so many people (faculty, administrators and staff) make so much effort to reach out to a group of kids and their parents who mostly wanted none of it. Gang membership was rampant. One of my colleagues had members of six gangs in her second periord English class alone. Riots and fights were daily to weekly occurences. Parents actively undermined the school. The author referenced boredom as a reason for high dropout rates. When did we decide that students had to be continuously entertained?? In addtion to learning academics and skills, students need to develop the ability to concentrate and focus even when something isn't a thrill a minute. That's called maturity, and it is needed in any work situation I'm aware of. There is no way that every student will be captivated by every class, nor should he or she expect to be. I am terribly concerned with the state of our society, but to blame educators for all its ills is a cop-out. Until we start telling the truth about what we're dealing with, we don't stand a chance of fixing our problems.

[Nommo]

12 years in the biz. Born and raised in an inner city. But would that the "inner city" was the only place this is happening. It is all over and has been for a while. When I went to elementary school, schools themselves were more community oriented. Teachers did not run out of town at 2:55pm. There were afternoon and evening programs. Just a bit of difference, then and now.

Second of all, I blamed no one. I stated rather clearly that education
has not kept pace with the times. That is a direct technical matter. By the time education recognizes innovation, it is already old news. But if you feel blamed, that is your problem, and maybe you should not be in the business.

You certainly missed the whole point of my post. Who do you imagine the "large and overweening bureaucracies" are? You? Maybe school boards, teacher unions, property tax assessors, city councils, and those who concoct educational materials and whoever else. They are all in it for the money. Not the students.