The efforts of some will benefit all. High school drop outs are a major componet in the study of literacy in this country. This article, from the Christian Science Monitor, reveals the benefits of finding these failing students and providing another opportunity for high school completion. The current drop out rates in the United States vary from 30 to 50 percent. These rates have been determined to be unacceptable in some communities. Alternative learning resources are being used to make connections with these students. As teachers, we need to be especially aware of these dropout rates. As mentioned in the article, many of the students do not make a connection with the school, learning, or teachers. Without this connection, students have very little to keep them in the education system.
Chris Ahnert left high school because he figured he didn’t have the credits to graduate, anyway.
Aziz Animashan left after he got kicked off the basketball team – the only thing keeping him there.
Stacy Del Real didn’t want to go back to the same environment where, she says, “there were bad things happening all around me.”
These students need to become integrated in programs where they are safe, and the subject matter makes that connection. These concerns are being met in numerous ways. Learning needs to be facilitated in ways which allow students to become engaged in the subject matter. The emotions of fear and anxiety reduce the levels of learning by preventing students from being able to completely immerse themselves in the text.
The high numbers – combined with research showing dropouts are far more likely to be in prison, on public assistance, or jobless – have many educators thinking about how to keep those students from ever leaving.
Communities who validate their youth and the value of an education have taken on the challenge of providing an environment conducive to learning. They have seen the need to provide an education to this lost element of society. In a study conduct in a small community in Ohio proves the need for this type of programming.
Another program was spearheaded by a county – not typically a player in education policy. Deborah Feldman, the county administrator for Montgomery County in Ohio, says she realized several years ago that half of their budget was going toward criminal justice and human services, but they were doing nothing to keep people from entering those systems.
The high numbers – combined with research showing dropouts are far more likely to be in prison, on public assistance, or jobless – have many educators thinking about how to keep those students from ever leaving.
With the research indicating such a strong correlation between the rates of crime and violence and the dropout rates, it is definitely in our best interest to find out why students are choosing to dropout, and find a solution to this epidemic problem. Is it possible that by encouraging our students to make connections to literature and other subjects, we can directly affect the rates of crime? It may be worth the extra time and money needed to find these “lost” students and teach to them in a contextual way.
The dropout rate in the US officially hovers around 10 percent.| Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor |
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