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DECEMBER 2004

HS Dropout Rates Reversed
By Nazneen Malik

Recently, the U.S Department of Education held a program in its series, “Education News Parents Can Use,” entitled, “Dropout Prevention and Recovery: Catching Students Before It's Too Late,” which discussed the issues surrounding high school students' decisions to dropout and programs that are being implemented to rectify the situation.

Research has shown that a person lacking a high school diploma will earn less than half of what a college graduate earns and only two-thirds of what a high school graduate makes because the individual lacks the necessary skills to compete in a highly competitive market. Hispanic, Native American, and African American students along with disabled students and those living in low income households are found to be at the greatest risk of dropping out of high school.

“Students without strong parental support often say this [school] is not meaningful, this is not getting me anywhere, I'm better off just leaving,” says Susan Sclafani, Assistant Secretary of Education for Vocational & Adult Education Students.

The No Child Left Behind Act holds schools to very high standards for test scores, and for high schools, the graduation rate is a key piece of accountability,” says Christopher Swanson, a research associate at the Urban Institute. The graduation rate has been redefined as “on-time completion of high school with a regular, standard state's diploma.” Schools can no longer try to “game the system” by pushing out academically weak students to raise test scores. “Knowledge is power when it comes to the dropout rate,” says Swanson. “We need to keep better track of students, know what type of support they need to keep them in school or bring them back, and we need to worry about how to identify those at-risk students, early.”

Although the dropout situation seems bleak, there are programs that have been successful at preventing dropouts and re-introducing them into the educational system. One such effort is the Gateway to College program which offers high school dropouts ages 16-20 an opportunity to complete high school and earn college credit. Students learn in a cohort and master basics like reading, writing, and math, while working on skills needed for college. The goal of the program is to move students from a history of failure to hope to success. In fact, the program has been so successful that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have invested in replicating the Gateway model on other college campuses throughout the nation. To be effective, such programs require strong relationships between colleges and local school systems.

The National Football Foundation's “Play it Smart Educational Program,” is another effort to keep students in school. The program targets kids from tough inner city environments, and provides support where it is lacking. It is designed to take “a student athlete's passion for sport and transform it into a force for greater good in their lives.” The graduation rate is 98 percent for the whole program and the average GPAs of students are higher than the school's average.

Changing a school's curriculum to better suit the changing needs of society is another way to combat the dropout situation. One of the poorest communities in Ohio, Pine Valley Local School district drastically altered its curriculum in response to being placed on the state's “academic watch” due to poor academic performance. After changing the curriculum, raising standards, and providing students with additional support, college attendance and academic performance rose.

Therefore, from these programs, it seems evident that understanding the challenges that at- risk students face, and providing them with the materials and support they need, is crucial to their academic and personal success.#
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