High School Drop-out Rates in the United States - Research Paper Example

Students dropping out of high school has long since been an issue facing many young teenagers in America. Through various studies, it has been shown that students often drop out of high school due to a disinterest in their studies, financial issues in their family, teenage pregnancy and involvement with drugs and alcohol. By not completing high school, these students face many issues down the road, most of which deal with their own financial situations as they are unable to find decent employment due to lack of education. Different social perspectives have allowed solutions to be created to keep students in school, including but not limited to focusing on what they want out of school and making it known to them that their top priority at their young age is their education and not the adult issues going on in their home. High school drop-out rates in the United States In 2008, approximately ten percent of high school students dropped out of school; out of America’s fifty largest cities, only fifty-eight percent of students made it to their graduation (Tilleczek, 2008). Even though this is a significant decrease from the fifteen percent that dropped out in 1980, teachers, school officials and parents fear that the numbers are on the rise once again, as are the number of reasons why students are dropping out to begin with. Due to the failing economy and the negative lifestyles that many students are living, many of them do not have much of a choice but to quit school to allow them to take care of the other events in their lives. There are also students who have no control over what has caused them to drop out of their education. The most common reasons that students drop out of high school involves the schooling itself and can be considered psychological, how they view the purpose of their education. Many students claimed that the classes were not interesting enough to care about or that they were not motivated to work hard enough. Other students either missed too many days to catch up or were else failing for various reasons. In a study by Gary Orfield, two-thirds of the high school drop-outs that she interviewed said that they would have tried harder in school if more had been expected of them (Orfield, 2004). These students did not feel motivated by teachers or parents, and therefore felt that it was a waste of time. Since nobody else seemed to care, they did not feel that they should either. There are other students that just simply give up on themselves, believing that they are not smart enough to continue with their studies. From a sociological perspective, the rising reason behind students dropping out of high school involves the people that they associate with, or else allow themselves to be influenced by. These also include the situations they get themselves into. An alarming number of teenage girls are dropping out of school due becoming pregnant. Approximately twenty-five percent of high school girls are dropping out to take care of their own children; a significantly less percentage of males drop out to help take care of their children. Unfortunately, most young males believe that since the girl is the one gave birth, they are the sole responsibility of the child, leaving the male free to continue his education. Two other leading causes are alcoholism and drug abuse, two activities that are usually brought on by spending time with the wrong choice of friends. These addictions get out of hand to the point where the students either fall too much behind to be able to catch up, they are arrested for their activities, they simply give up and succumb to their addiction, or they end up dead. These reasons can also be considered from a psychological perspective, in the sense that some of the students that suffer from these types of addiction suffer from the emotional problems that come with the addiction. They lose the feeling of importance that education had on them. Conformity plays a big role in the aforementioned reasons for students dropping out of high school. Pregnancy pacts, which are agreements between groups of friends that they will all become teenage mothers, have become a common occurrence in high schools. An increasing amount of teenage girls are becoming pregnant simply because their friends are doing it, thus condoning it for themselves. Those that get involved with drugs or alcohol also often do it simply because others are. The rate of high school drinkers has also increased, reaching a shocking eighty percent (Waggoner, 2008). A correlation has also been found between high school drinkers and teen pregnancies. In our failing economy, the amount of students that have left high school to get a job to help their family has increased considerably. Many of these students admit that dropping out was easy due to their lack of concern for their education, or because they are unsure about what they want to do as a more permanent career. As work hours are cut and many employees are faced with salary decreases, it seems that the costs of living only increase, making it more difficult for families to make ends meet. The students of some of these families take it upon themselves to ensure that bills can still be paid and groceries are still bought. Their concern for their family outweighs the concern for their own educational future. There are numerous repercussions and effects due to students dropping out of high school, with the most common ones being unemployment and poverty; many of the students in these cases end up receiving government assistance. Without a high school diploma, students are presented with fewer employment options, especially ones that pay well enough to live on. Some even become discouraged by their inability to find a job with a good salary and give up on working altogether. Both of these scenarios often lead to the student having to go on welfare, or else living in poverty or even homelessness. Health is then effected as these people cannot afford the proper care or medication if they were to get sick. It all comes like a chain reaction until they reach rock bottom. It is quite common that a vast majority of prison inmates are high school drop-outs, if not still teenagers. A connection has long since been found between education and criminal activity, showing that people with a higher level of education are less likely to engage in criminal acts (Farrar & Weis, 1989). Unsurprisingly, the most common crime amongst high school drop-outs is theft. This is seen as a result from being unable to obtain employment that offers a good salary. When faced with poverty, some people do what they feel they need to do to survive. In regard to the teenagers that leave school due to pregnancy, it is more often than not that these teenagers, especially the girls, end up either becoming single parents or divorced. Furthermore, this often leads to poverty or government aid. So many of the teenagers that become mothers automatically assume that they are now adults and can therefore take on all of the responsibilities of adulthood. However, regardless of the situations they have put themselves in, they are still children and are usually unable to fend for themselves. From a strengths perspective, this issue of students dropping out of high school can be responded to by focusing on what students want to get out of school. For the students that drop out because the classes are too boring or not interesting enough, alternative classes should be created that do spark their interest. In regard to the students that fall behind, offering evening classes or more GED opportunities will allow them to do schooling as they want to. By playing up to their strengths and focusing on their goals, they have a better chance at succeeding. The ecological systems perspective offers five smaller perspectives. The microsystem involves the setting in which an individual lives. Students should be in a home with encouraging parents or guardians, and they should have a group of friends that are able to have a similar drive for their education. If their school is not working out, then the school should be changed. Mesosystem refers to the relationships of the microsystems. If a child is abused at home, they need to be placed in a home where there is no physical harm. The exosystem is the link between the social setting and the individual. When a parent loses their job, the student needs to understand that it is not their first responsibility to work. They can get a part-time job and balance both work and school if they feel the need to. Macrosystem is the culture in which the student lives. Again, the social status and the economy come to play here, and students need to know that these are aspects that should not concern them. If they do not want to attend school out of fear of being bullied due to racism or homosexism, then they need to speak to a trusted adult so that they may return to school without fear. The chronosytem deals with the patterning of transitions over the life course. Children facing divorce risk poor performance in school, often making them unconcerned about attending, especially when the divorce leads to financial issues. To avoid this, parents should ensure that their children are kept out of the divorce proceedings as much as possible. High school dropout rates, though decreasing from previous years, is still a major concern of teenagers in the United States. Some of the most common reasons for students dropping out of high school is because they are uninterested in what they are being taught, they want to get a job, or they have become pregnant or too involved in drugs and alcohol. Through the different options seen in strengths perspective and ecological systems perspective, the needs of these students can be met so that they can focus on their education and save being an adult for when they are out of school and ready for the responsibility. References Farrar, E., & Weis, L. (1989). Dropouts from school: Issues, dilemmas, and solutions. Albany, New York: State University Of New York Press. Orfield, G. (2004). Dropouts in America: Confronting the graduation rate crisis. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Education Press. Tilleczek, K. (2008). Why do different kinds of students drop out of high school: Narratives and social critiques. Lewiston, New York: The Edwin Mellen Press. Waggoner, D. (2008). Undereducation in America: The demography of high school dropouts. New York: Auburn House. Read More