High School Dropout - Research Paper Example

? High School Dropout The US high school dropout epidemic paints a grim picture of the country’s educational future.Each year, many of the students who enroll in the elementary level fail to graduate from high school. What is even more worrying is the trend where many of the students abandon school with less than two years to graduation. Various studies have indicated approximately a third of all public high school students do not see out their high school years where about a half of this group is from the Hispanics, Native Americans and African American communities. This recurrent problem has led to various initiatives to explore extend of the crisis in addition to finding the reasons and possible solutions to arrest the dropout rate. Timely solutions are necessary especially since there has not been a substantial improvement in the figures even after the education reforms of the past few decades. Consequently, this essay explores the extend of high school dropout rate while suggesting the possible reasons why many students do not stay in school until graduation in addition to providing possible solutions to end the cycle. Statistics notes the current annual high school dropout figure to be 3,030,000(Education Week, 2013). The high number of high school dropouts in US educational system has not gone unnoticed given the number of national policies that have been put in place over the years to reverse the cycle. The year 1990 recorded a change in the way the state and federal government handled the issue of high school dropouts through adoption of six national goals that were to be achieved by the year 2000. The second goal in the six national goals underlies the government’s commitment towards improving the high school graduation rate up to 90 percent in addition to an undertaking which would see the prevailing gap in high school graduation rates among minority and non-minority students eliminated. The six national goals for the reduction of high school dropout rate has had a significant impact as seen from the decreasing levels of drop outs from 1990s figures of 9 percent for whites, 13.2 percent for African American and 32.4 percent for Hispanic to the 2009 dropout figures of 5.2 percent for whites and 9.6 percent for African American and 17.6 percent for the Hispanic. During the same period, high school dropout rates across gender and race reduced from 12.1 percent to 8.1 (Education Week, 2013) The number of high school dropouts has a significant impact on the social, cultural, political and economic ambitions of a country. The future of any country literary depends on the education of the children since they are future citizens, professionals, and leaders therefore making education the major tool for empowerment of a country’s citizenry in addition to the guaranteed development of personal, economic, and social well-being of the people in a society. Therefore, high drop outs reduce the number of qualified human resource from varied social backgrounds that are necessary for making essential public policies both in political and professional positions. As a consequence, in undertaking the educational journey students should be encouraged to remain in schools up to the graduation time for them to increase their knowledge skills and attitude that will make them adapt to their social responsibility, healthy, and be contributing citizens (Greenberg et al., 2003). Economically, high school dropouts earn lower pays on average compared to those who graduated where male dropouts of ages 25 to 65 had an annual average earning of about $26,400 compared to the average of $35,000 that male high school graduates earn annually which is still lower compared to $40,000 that a male college graduate in the same age bracket earned (Lofstrom, 2008). The current vicious cycle of high school dropout can be explored under different levels considering the fact the statistics are not even across different sex where the percentage of male at 9.1% is more than that of female at 7%, race where African American stands at 9.6%, white 5.2%, Asian American 2.1%, Hispanic 17.6% (Education Week). Other differential factors in high school dropout rates include family income levels, ages, disability, and geographical regions of students. The determination of reasons that lead to students dropping out of schools is a complex undertaking due to a number of reasons. High school dropout is not a distinct isolated choice but a process the student undergoes for some time before it actually happens. Additionally, research methodologies employed in most of the studies undertakings have their own limitations such as the limitation of identifying risk factors which is based on correlation rather than causations of what leads to drop out of high school students. Finally, there is a limited research on how specific risk factors have different effect on students across gender, race ethnicity, or both (Jimerson, Egeland, Sroufe & Carlson, 2000). The risk factors can be grouped into four larger categories that are based on, firstly, the individual dispositions which includes poor attitude toward schooling and truancy. Although truancy is seen as an individual disposition for every child, parents have a role to place in ending the child’s absence from school. Parents can help end truancy especially since it was found that by sending notices to parents of truant children informing them of a possible legal action if they don’t send their children to school, truancy rates fell by 40 percent (Watanabe, 2013). Truant children miss school for long periods making it difficult and in some cases impossible to catch up with rest of the students. Children who are continually absent from school become disengaged from school system which poses a risk of them having anti social behavior such as juvenile delinquency. Many schools use the traditional methods of punishing delinquent students which is to exclude them from the classroom and other school activities therefore creating more problems as struggling students are given a message that they are not wanted in school (Trujillo, 2006). Secondly, the family a child comes from might play a role in the decision to drop out of where such a decision is influenced by a lack of participation in the child’s schooling activities by parents. Children from low income families are also at risk of dropping out of school as parents are not able to provide them with most of the needed material like books in addition to the fact that the child will sometimes be forced to undertake some economic activities to supplement the parents’ income. In such cases, the child will spent more time thinking about the financial situation at home and less time on the studies (Hammond, Linton, Smink & Drew, 2007). Thirdly the school system might also lead to high school dropout based on the way the system handles students from different backgrounds and with different behavioral and cognitive abilities. The school system that places low expectations in the student’s academic performance makes such students feel there is nothing they can do to improve therefore resorting to dropping out of school. The school system can also present the student with a negative environment that makes it impossible for such a student to learn. Negative school environment might comprise bullying, name calling in addition to other physical and emotional abuse by fellow students and some of the teachers (Hammond, Linton, Smink & Drew, 2007). The school environment has a big role in high school dropout cases since it is where students spent most of their time. Other risk factors for high school dropouts, schools with supportive teachers are able to cut the drop out level by half (Center for Public Education, 2007). Therefore, teachers should establish a curriculum that is more students centered and rigorous. An education system that is based on the needs of the students will motivate them to participate more in school activities as students find it interesting which increases their school attendance levels. The Center for Public Education (2007) report notes other risk factors being equal high schools with activities that consists of mainly academic courses while limiting the number of remedial and non-academic courses report high graduation rates. The report further claim that for every two extra math courses schools includes in the curriculum which is below the level of Algebra I, high school students reported over thirty percent increase in the chances of dropping out. The key to keeping in more high school students in class therefore is to make education both challenging and engaging while at the same time giving students the necessary academic support they require to grasp challenging content. The fourth category of factors that contribute to school dropout is the community in which one is brought up. A student brought up in a community that does not support education might absorb these community perspective of school therefore fail to recognize the importance of going to school. Such a community might also be lacking in role models denying the student a person to look up to. Most of the efforts to keep high school students in school until graduations have been reactionary since they aim at taking back to school those who had left the system instead of being proactive. A proactive approach to high school dropout involves mechanisms that are put in place in the beginning years of a child’s education. Therefore, it is essential that stakeholders in education start advocating for early education and literacy as a way of preventing future dropout during a child’s high school years. Research undertaken in the study of the relationship between school dropout and the accumulation of various risks factors over time of a student education discovered that dropouts arise from a buildup of several risk factors over children’s schooling that climax once in high school. Therefore, effective measures to curb school dropout must be undertaken as early as possible especially in the formative years of the child’s education. Hammond, Linton, Sminkand Drew (2007) note the possibility to recognize early predictors of future dropout in children even prior to their enrollment in kindergarten. The importance of early childhood education in the future success of a child is that it sets a foundation on which future academic success to build. This early educational development present a vital window for optimal brain development given that before age five, 90 percent of brain development is estimated to taken place. Apart from the developmental importance of early childhood, it is also a phase when a child is most susceptible to environmental based risk factors that include poverty, physical and emotional abuse, undernourishment and maternal depression. As a result, of the combination of environmental and developmental risk factors beneficiaries of superior quality early childhood education display lesser rates of grade retention, lesser need of special education, higher levels of academic achievement, in addition to having strong dedication towards graduation from high school (Stegelin, 2004). Future academic success of students depends on the early literacy development where children who exhibit poor reading skills have a higher chance of being asked to repeat a grade which might result to a pattern of failure in subsequent school years. Special interventions intended for children between birth and three years followed by preschool and kindergarten period can help them go into elementary school with superior language and cognitive skills in addition to an all-round self-concept, their family upbringing and personality notwithstanding (National Dropout Prevention Center/Network, 2009). In terms of gender difference in the number of high school drop outs, pregnancy can be analyzed as the main factor that makes the number of girls who do not graduate from high school to be higher than those of boys (Rousso & Wehmeyer, 2001). A section of high schoolgirls who drop out give pregnancy and motherhood as the reason for this phenomenon although figures have been going down over the years. The number of high school girls who have been forced to suspend their education due to early pregnancy has recorded a decrease by about 42 percent since the all-time peak in 1990. However, even as the number of teenage pregnancy is reducing, the current situation where research indicates that about three in ten girls in USA might get pregnant before their twentieth birthday. The fact that the US has the highest rate of teenage pregnancies at an average of 750,000 pregnancies each year among the developed countries is not an encouraging trend given that studies show about 30 percent of teenage girls who drop out of high school mention parenthood or pregnancy as the main reason. The numbers of high school girls who leave school due to parenthood as the main reason are even higher for African American being at 38 percent and Hispanic at 36 percent (Rousso & Wehmeyer, 2001). This rate of teenage pregnancies is and the subsequent dropout denies the US society the highly needed future professional skills especially at a time the country needs to become more competitive in the world economy. Although the educational system provides an alternative means by which these girls can resume their education through General Educational Development (GED), getting a GED presents a tough a challenge for most of the girls. Shuger (2012) notes about one-half of mothers who dropped out of school due to pregnancy only concluded neither a GED after their eighteenth birthday in addition to only 34% percent of young women who become mothers in their teens neither earned a diploma nor a GED. Teenage girls dropping out of high school has far reaching impact in the social and economic aspects of both the mother and the child. Shuger (2012) asserts that teen mothers who do not graduate from high school and children of teen mothers undergo endure a range of educational challenges. The consequence of teenage pregnancy is not limited to a difficulty in completion of education, profession, and other life goals for teen mothers, but has further repercussions on the future prospects of such children. Alliance for Excellent Education (2008) notes the economic consequences for those who do not graduate from college where those who graduate from college education have a combined $1 million average income more than a high school dropout in a life time. The economic impact does not end with a disadvantage on the school dropout but spreads to the national economy where a single high school dropout costs the nation about $260,000 in foregone taxes, productivity and earnings in a life time. Across the races, Hispanic (17.6%) high school dropout rates are higher than those of African American (9.6%) followed by white (5.2%) who have the lowest rates (Education Week, 2013). 8.4% of Hispanic high school students are more likely leave school due to family reasons compared to 5.2% of whites, 3.7% of African American and 4.1% of Native Americans also cite family reasons the main factor for dropping out of school. Another reason for higher dropout rates among the African American and Hispanic high school students is lack of residential stability given that most move from one neighborhood to the next more frequently compared to white students (Glennie and Stearns, 2002). Glennie and Stearns (2002) notes 16.0% of Hispanic high school student’s dropout leaves the education system because of moving to a new place compared to 5.64% of white, 6.5% of African American and 2.26% of Native Americans who indicated a shift in their residence as the reason for dropping out. However, the actual figures for those who drop out would be different considering the fact that most students recorded as having dropped out of high school because of changing residence in one state might have in fact enrolled in another state. Additionally in comparison with African American, Hispanics are less likely to drop out of high school due to disciplinary reasons. The number of African American and Hispanic dropping out for academic reasons are the same on average to those of other races meaning the higher dropout rates for these two groups are because of factors outside the school (Glennie and Stearns, 2002). From the above analysis, it can be deduced that high school dropout is a complex issue whose reasons are interlinked with the cultural, economic, social and political factors. further, the risk factors that predispose high school students to the chance of dropping out of school needs to be analyzed on racial, gender, geographical location physical abilities among others in addition to exploring the roles played by the school, family and community a whole in keeping the student in school. Therefore, the connectedness of the high school dropout risk factors calls for the collaborative efforts of parents, teachers and the government so that holistic and more focused policies that will be effective in the eradication of high school dropout can be developed. Reference Alliance for Excellent Education. (2008). The High Cost of High School Dropouts: What the Nation Pays for Inadequate High Schools. Washington, DC: Alliance for Excellent Education. American Psychological Association. (2012). Facing the school dropout dilemma. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved from: http://www.apa.org/pi/families/resources/school-dropoutprevention.aspx Center for public education. (2007). Keeping kids in school: What research tells us about preventing dropouts. Retrieved from: http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/Main-Menu/Staffingstudents/Keeping-kids-in-school-At-a-glance/Keeping-kids-in-school-Preventing-dropouts.html. Education Week. (2013). High School Dropout Statistics. Retrieved from http://statisticbrain.com/high-school-dropout-statistics/. Glennie, E. J., & Stearns, E. (2002). Why Hispanic Students Drop Out of High School Early: Data from North Carolina. Policy Briefs: Education Reform, 2(6), 1-4. Jimerson, S., Egeland, B., Sroufe, L. A., & Carlson, B. (2000).A prospective longitudinal study of high school dropouts examining multiple predictors across development. Journal of School Psychology, 38(6), 525-549. Hammond, C., Linton, D., Smink, J., & Drew, S. (2007). Dropout risk factors and exemplary programs.Retrieved from http://www.dropoutprevention.org/resource/major_reports/communities_in_schools/Dropout%20Risk%20Factors%20and%20Exemplary%20Programs%20FINAL%205-16-07.pdf. Lofstrom, M. (2008). Why Are Hispanic and African-American Dropout Rates So High? IZA Discussion Paper No. 3265. National Dropout Prevention Center/Network (2009). Effective strategies – Early childhood education. Retrieved from: http://www.dropoutprevention.org/effstrat/early_childhood_ed/overview.htm. Rousso, H., &Wehmeyer, M. L. (Eds.). (2001). Double jeopardy: Addressing gender equity in special education supports and services. New York: SUNY Press. Shuger, L. (2012). Teen Pregnancy and High School Dropout: What Communities Can Do to Address These Issues. Washington, DC: The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and America’s PromiseAlliance. Stegelin, D. (2004). Early childhood education. In F. P. Schargel& J. Smink (Eds.) Helping students graduate: A strategic approach to dropout prevention, 115-123. Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education. Watanabe, T. (2013). California truancy is at 'crisis' level, says attorney general. latimes Retrieved from: < http://articles.latimes.com/2013/sep/30/local/la-me-truant-kids-20130930> Trujillo, L. A. (2006). School truancy: A case study of a successful truancy reduction model in the public schools. UC Davis Journal of Juvenile Law & Policy, 10(1), 69-95. Read More