High School Dropout Research

Growing Trends in High School Drop-outs One of the major concerns of education is the rate of students who are dropping out of school. Statistically, the dropout rate has decreased from a national average of 15 percent in 1972 to 10 percent in 2003, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, which rated 16-24 year olds (Child Trend, 2003).

Though, there has been signs of a decrease, drop out rates continue to be a concern to the public because of the potential consequences and financial costs to the government. On the academic level, many schools are incapable of handling the new “faces” in the education realm.Thus, it forces many students to leave school without a diploma. The drop out rates appears to be an attribute of primarily bigger cities and districts that are composed of high minority enrollment.

With the introduction of the No Child Left Behind Act, information about these schools is now available (Swanson, 2004). In order to curtail the rate of drop-outs, schools need more resources, better teachers, parent/community involvement, and financial means to accommodate their pupils so that these same students don’t end up being a greater financial risk to the public.There are plenty of examples of successful high school dropouts, such as Henry Ford and Albert Einstein. However, they remain to be exceptions. High school dropouts, including those who earn GEDs, earn less money than those who earn a high school diploma. One of the reasons is that they “tend to come from lower-income families than conventional high school graduates.

Their parents were less likely to have completed high school” (Murnane & Tyler, 2000). It is difficult for parents who did not complete school to assist a child with his/her homework.Many have to work 2/3 jobs just to maintain food on the table, decreasing the amount of time that could be spent with one’s child. “Low-income parents are less likely to participate in their children’s education-a predictable outcome because of educational background, inadequate financial resources, and inadequate time” (Futrel & Rotberg, 2002). Children who come from these disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to begin school ill prepared with less academic skills as students from affluent backgrounds. Secondly, low income communities are not equally staffed with the high level of quality teachers as those in higher income communities.

Teachers in such district work with minimal resources and in poor infrastructures (Futrel & Rotberg, 2002). With being in such an uneven playing field, many students from poorer communities are likely to not complete school. High school dropouts typically lack the skills to obtain quality employment. Along with cognitive skills, high school dropouts lack employability and social skills that would make them more appealing in the work-force (Murnane & Tyler, 2000). Their jobs options and potential income are limited.

Therefore, the government loses out on potential taxes in comparison the to higher income of high school graduates. One reason that high school dropouts and GED recipients earn less money than high school graduates is because they are less likely to pursue a college education or additional training. They also lack the financial resources to do so. The “GED examination does not guarantee mastery of the skills needed in college coursework” (Murnane & Tyler, 2000). High school graduates are more likely to have obtained college credits that would make them more attractive in the labor market.It is estimated that the government loses billions annually because of high school dropouts.

A percentage of the money is spent on GED and job training programs. Job Corps is one such example. It receives 1. 4 billion dollars a year for 60, 000 students, averaging over $23,000 per student (Job Corps). Most of the students are high school dropouts.

Because high school dropouts earn less, they are also more likely to drain the government resources, such as medical insurance, housing, and social support programs. They become a burden to the tax payer.A concern of the statistical data of high school dropouts is the disparaging number of minority students who drop out of high school in comparison to whites and Asians. A 1993 research by John Hopkins University “flagged 2,000 high schools across the country as potential ‘dropout factories’ because 40 percent or more of their freshmen fail to make it to 12th grade on time” (Viadero, 2004). These schools are in medium and bigger size cities and have a significant black and Latino student population. Florida is the one exception, where many of the failing students are rural white.

In 2003, it was estimated that 6 percent of whites, in comparison to 12 percent of blacks had dropped out of school (Child Trend, 2003). The primary reason appears that these school districts have a variety of disadvantages, such as resources and money to improve schools and programs. These schools are located in lower socio-economic communities. However, these disadvantaged students are judged on the same achievement standards as students who live in higher economic districts with better resources and tools. Latin Americans constitute the highest percentage of high school dropouts. 4 percent of Latin Americans dropped out of school in 2003 (Child Trends, 2003).

This is a significant number because there are just as many Latin Americans dropping out of school as whites. Yet, Latin Americans represent slightly above 15 percent of the population. The rate is expected to increase to 25 percent by the year 2010 (CNN, 2003). The reason for this high percentage drop out rate is due primarily to the school systems being incapable of accommodating the growing population of Latino students. There are increasing Latin American population spurts throughout the country.This population increase isn’t only occurring in major cities, but also in regions such Tennessee, Indiana and Rhode Island (CNN, 2003).

These regions have to move quickly to create ESL and other programs to accommodate the students. However, they can not move quickly enough. They have a greater difficulty in improving English fluency because they are only recently experiencing this growth in the Latino population in comparison to some major cities, such as New York and Chicago (CNN, 2003). These bigger cities have witnessed the population growth for decades.The law states that “any student who’s been in a U.

S. school for three consecutive years must take the state’s reading test in English” (CNN, 2003). Therefore, these students are being judged on the achievement level as those who have been raised and speaking the language a dozen years prior to them. Unfortunately, because many schools can not bring these students up to par fast enough, these students end up not graduating. Though the National Center for Education Statistics states that the high school dropout rate is near 10 percent, statisticians claim that it is actually much higher.The report excludes dropouts who go on to obtain GEDs.

It also excludes those who are incarcerated, which represents a huge number of African Americans. An Urban Institute research states that the high school drop out rate is closer to 32 percent (Swanson, 2004). One of the primary reasons for the inaccuracy is that some states did not report their statistics on high school dropouts (Swanson, 2004). It was always an option that many states held. Some states also did not consider a student who left school to attend a GED program as a high school dropout. With nactment of the No Child Left Behind Act, schools are being held “accountable for both achievement-test scores and graduation rates” (Swanson, 2004).

The public is becoming more aware of such under achieving schools. As noted, blacks, Latinos and lower income students have a worst success rate in high school graduation. It isn’t fair to use income as a measure of potential success of students. It isn’t fair to point at Latinos and state that they are the reason for so many high school drop outs. While a percentage may drop out of school, a greater number of students from these same backgrounds do graduate high school and enroll in college.However, there is a strong correlation between those who come from a disadvantaged background with the current high school drop out rate.

In order to improve the graduation rate for these persons, the schools should invest in better qualified instructors. This would require increase funding to the lower-income districts in order to attract quality teachers (Futrel & Rotberg, 2002). Secondly, the schools would need to orchestrate a better range of programs, such as bi-lingual education. Such programs would be instrumental in providing the students with the skills and education necessary to successfully complete school.

Another objective should be to increase participation among parents, community organizations and business leaders. Their participation would make up for the lack of resources of these schools. One may argue that higher expectations, such as high stakes testing with accountability may increase high school graduation rates. Conversely, it can be reasoned that high stakes testing would only increase the competency of the majority of high school graduates, but at a sacrifice to others. It would further the percentage of high school dropouts in communities that are ill prepared to meet the challenges of raising competency levels.High school dropouts represent a major factor in education.

Although, not everyone is destined to enroll in college, those who lack fundamental skills will have a greater difficulty in obtaining any type of employment. However, it isn’t those people who will suffer greater casualties, it’s the general public that has to pay more taxes to support their needs. Work cited Futrel, M. H.

& Rotberg, I. C. (2002). Predictable casualties. Education Week (online), 22(5), 34,48.

High school dropout rates. (n. d. ). Retrieved August 12, 2005 from http://www. hildtrendsdatabank.

org/indicators/1HighSchoolDropout. cfm Hispanic students bring new challenges (2003). Retrieved August 12, 2005 from http://www. cnn. com/2003/EDUCATION/06/03/hispanic. students.

ap/ Murname, Richard J & Tyler, John H. (2000). The increasing role of the GED in american education. Education Week (online), 19(34), 48,64.

Swanson, C. B. (2004). The new math on graduation rates.

Education Week (online), 23(43), 31,40. What is Job Corps. Retrieved September 9, 2005 from http://jobcorps. doleta.

gov/about. cfm