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Reducing Dropout Rates In Our Country
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High School Dropout Rate
Expectations of today’s educational qualifications for high school students are different than it was in the past. It is not uncommon to hear about a student who did not graduate from school. As shown in table 1, 97 students from Stanly County dropped out of school in the 2011- 2012 school year (“Grade 7-13 Dropout Counts and Rates (pdf.62kb)”). Last school year 3.01 percent of North Carolina’s high school students dropped out of school according to the 2011-12 Consolidated Data Report, as a result the total number of students who dropped out of high school in the 2012 year is 13,488. It is also noted that the top five reasons NC students drop out of school are: 1. Attendance, 2. Enrollment in a Community College, 3. Unknown, 4. Moved, School status unknown, 5. Lack of Engagement. (“Dropout prevention and Intervention”) This number is very high considering that there are only five major high schools in the Stanly county district. This is why I think it is important that something should be done to reduce the high school dropout rate in Stanly County.
Table 1
County Name Grade 7-13 Drop Out Rates (2011- 2012)
Stanly County 97
It has been known that young people who drop out of high school and do not earn a diploma come to face more problems later in life. Some struggles they may experience are unemployment, poor health, turn to drugs & alcohol, and live in poverty. High school students who dropped out before graduating are more likely to drink, smoke, use illegal drugs, committing crimes, and becoming teen parents. In the states of North Carolina alone it is known that approximately 53 teens become pregnant every day, North Carolina is said to have the 9th highest rate for teen pregnancy ...
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...aduation Requirements” N.d Web K-12 Curriculum And Instruction/NC Standard Course Of Study 21 March 2014
“Economic News Release” 17 April 2013 Web Bureau of Labor Statistics 21 March 2014
“Dropout Prevention and Intervention” N.d Web Public Schools of North Carolina 21 March 2014
“North Carolina High School Dropout Rates” N.d Web an Econometric Analysis 22 March 2014
“National Center of Education Statistics” 14 November 2013 Web Virginia Performs 22 March 2014
“The NSDUH Report” 12 February 2013 Web Substance Use Among 12th Grade Aged youths by Dropout Status 22 March 2014
“The Chronicle” 7 January 2014 Web the High Costs of a GED Diploma 22 March 2014
“NC Policy Watch” 28 April 2008 Web News and commentary on public policy in NC 22 March 2014
“Did You Know” N.d Web By 2018, 59 percent of Jobs in NC Will Require at Least Some Education Beyond High School
The documentary “Dropout Nation” shows how difficult it is for students who live in poorer communities to receive a good education and graduate high school. Students and teachers are interviewed in this documentary to show that these students are intelligent but are not able to graduate due to their circumstances. These examples help explain the concepts learned in chapter 10 about social institutions and how it is affected by politics, education, and religion.
Manlove, J. (1998) The influence of high school drop out and school disengagement on the risk of school age pregnancy, Journal of Research on Adolescence, 8, 182-185
How does dropping out of high school affects students’ lives in the future? Students’ dropping out has become a crisis, President Obama said, “It’s time for all of us to come together parents and students, principals, and teachers, business leaders and elected officials to end America’s dropout crisis” (“ President Obama”). There are 7 thousand students’ that drop out of high school that adds up to about 1.2 million each year, wouldn’t it be nice to drop that number and help kids stay in school instead of dropping out of high school(“ President Obama”). Students’ shouldn’t drop out of high school because they couldn’t go to college, couldn’t hold down a job, and would struggle making minimum wage for the rest of their life.
Regularly, a student receives a diploma after a certain required course load is completed. On the other hand, some students can complete high school by a means of an equivalency test and receive a diploma that way. Unfortunately, each state, district, and even school uses the term dropout differently (USDE, 1996). The United States Department of Education?s National Center for Educational Statistics has stated three separate ways used to calculate the dropout rate. The first is when the percentage of students who drop out in a single year are reflected by the event rates. The second is when the status rates reflect a percentage of those students who in a certain age range have not finished high school ...
The target population under consideration are teenagers between the ages of 13-17 though there has been cases of drug use in individuals under this age group. The teenagers attending 5 secondary schools in Manchester, North West England. This population is important because of the high rate of drug use in the area. Although, the highest number of deaths occur among the 40-49 age group, most drug addicts admit to using of drugs early in their teen years. Manchester in North West of England will be chosen because of the high rate of drug misuse in the area.
Many high school students succeed with a little leniency through their four years. The transfer from high school to college becomes overwhelming and a struggle for some. For students do not comprehend the importance of changing more than their location during the transition. A student must be psychologically, physically, and emotionally mature to pursue college and not venture into a point of no return. Dropping out of college makes the outlook of the conversion difficult to acquire. Individuals should take their time on deciding which college and/or university is the best match for them. There are various reasons that cause persons not to prosper. Issues that individuals may come upon might leave a lifelong scar. Matters such as these should not be as prevalent, creating a problem in the future for the well-being of our local communities and nation. The awareness of the causes of students dropping out will help educators, mentors, writers, and others to prevent occasions like this. Soon the dropout rate will increase and the hope for everyone being educated to acquire the needed knowledge to deal with upcoming improvements and preventions. The need for high school students to transfer into college smoothly and maintain self-discipline is significant. Anne Mallinson, Mark Kantrowitz, and Caralee Adams support this indication as well, providing several respectable points.
To sustain a decent job that could provide a substantial income in today’s society, citizens must have a high school education. Since children are allowed to drop out of school at the age of sixteen, they limit their chances of leading a prosperous life as an adult; without a high school diploma, or its equivalency, it is difficult to live life above the poverty line. Nettie Legters, a research scientist, expresses her thoughts on how there should be a way to prevent the percentages of student dropouts nationwide.
Bloom, Dan. "Helping High School Dropouts Improve Their Prospects." The Brookings Institution. N.p., Spring 2010. Web. 04 Nov. 2013.
Most jobs that hire teenagers require a high school diploma which is why it could be more difficult to find a job. In 2011 the unemployment rate amongst dropouts was about 14.3%. “those with a high school diploma and no post-secondary education worked more consistently (i.e., longer spells of full time employment) eight years after high school than those without a high school diploma, regardless of their grades and standardized test scores in high school.”(Kuehn). Students who graduated with a diploma have been seen to...
Every 26 seconds one of our kids drops out of high school, that's 1.3 million students each year. The main reason for dropping out, the failure to succeed. Society puts an insurmountable amount of pressure on these kids to succeed, however this can actually be extremely detrimental to the students and children.
While cocaine, heroin, other illicit drug use has declined sharply in popularity among teens, marijuana use has slowly but steadily increased (NCIB.org, 2016). Alcohol and marijuana are traditionally the two drugs most accessible to teenagers. Teenage alcohol consumption reached a peak in the 1970s and then again in the late 1990s. At the height of teenage alcohol consumption in 1998, 31.5% of high school seniors reported binge drinking (five or more drinks in a row). A statistic shows that 19.3% of student’s ages 12-17 who receive average grades of “D” or lower used marijuana (NCIB.org, 2016).
Teens today face a lot of pressure. Many students deal with difficult life situations that hinder them from focusing on their futures. This can lead to a loss of interest in school and school events, such as a sports, clubs, or after school programs. Teens start to prioritize other things over their education. Every year, over 1.2 million students will leave school without earning a high school diploma in the United States alone (“11”). That’s a student every 26 seconds – or 7,000 a day (“11”). The United States, which used to have the highest graduation rates of any country, now ranks 22nd out of 27 developed countries (“11”). Students may not realize that by dropping out of high school they are more likely to commit crimes, become parents at a young age, use and abuse alcohol and drugs, and live in poverty (“Drop”). Dropouts make up the majority of those
There are a myriad of cultural and societal risk factors that contribute adolescent alcohol and drug use. A risk factor is defined as “any attribute, characteristic or exposure of an individual that increases the likelihood of developing a disease or injury”. These risk factors can be identified through family history of substance use disorder, sense of inferiority, pleasure seeking, low self-esteem, unemployment, poor social support, desire to experiment and poor social support (Thomas, N. L., Naregal, P. M., Mohite, V. R., Tata, S. H., Karale, R. B., & Kakade, S. V. (2015).) Risk of drug abuse increases greatly during times of transition, such as changing schools, moving, or divorce. Additional peer risk factors include gang involvement or the reinforcement of negative norms and expectations within peer group, the lack of academic...
Regrettably, some students must drop out of school and use that time to get a job to help support their families. Female students who become pregnant have to drop out to take care of their child. Poor choices constrain some students to land themselves behind bars before their education becomes complete. Primary caretakers becoming ill and/or dying can force high schoolers to drop out and to take on the role of their family member, who has now become unable (“School Dropout”). These events can leave kids all over the country with two different options that have a few stunning similarities; receiving their GED, or dropping out of high school without a
Though much of the research on school completion emphasizes the psychological traits of students and organizational characteristics of school systems, little has examined the impact of health. Yet health affects school dropout rates directly and indirectly. Substance abuse, teen pregnancy, and mental health problems are some of the leading causes of students dropping out. Teenage pregnancy, for example, is the number one reason adolescent women drop out of school; about 30%–40% of female dropouts are mothers (Freudenberg & Ruglis, 2007). At the same time, young men drop out in order to support a child. Addiction, mental illness, and mortality among parents also have significant impact on student achievement