One in Three Drop Out: What is Next for Them?

While researching the field of education, I am often reminded that students are not receiving the education they deserve. Discussion about the problems of secondary education always catch my attention--it hits a soft spot, as I sometimes wish that my pre-college education experiences had been a little better, that my teachers had been a little tougher, and that my peers had been a little more competitive. And when I do become a teacher, my goal is to make sure that the students do their best to look back on their own experiences with no regrets. I hope that they are able to feel as though they met their full potential upon graduation. This includes all students, not just the ones with the highest potential, which is why I feel remorse after reading articles outlining the drop out problem in America. While I understand that making improvements to public education may be a difficult and daunting task, we must do our best to change the environment so that students are more likely to stay. We need to look at the reasons for students leaving in order to discover what we must do to keep them in school.

According to the American Youth Policy Forum, about one-third of our nation's high school students drop out before graduation. As T. Keung Hui notes in his publication "Dropout Rate, Suspension on Rise in N.C.," higher dropout rates mean large costs for taxpayers, as well as higher Medicaid and prison costs. Hence, committees are formed to come up with solutions and money is granted to fund alternatives for those who no longer choose to stay in school. These alternatives include continuation or opportunity schools, independent study, community day schools, and adult General Education Development programs. However, many would argue that these programs by no means measure up to the standards of an average public education. One twelve-year member of the Los Angeles Board of Education, David Tokofsky, wrote into the Los Angeles Times arguing that the test scores produced by students in alternative schools were not much higher than the test scores of dropouts. Taking troubled students out of public school systems only to throw them into other systems that hardly meet the standards seems like a waste of money. If we want to keep these students on the right path, we should certainly consider making changes to curricula that would encourage students to remain in school until graduation.

What are some things that could be done? In Hui's article Tony Parker, who is the Superintendent of Johnston County, described his proposal of an Evening Academy where students could retake classes they failed. While this plan sounds like a good one, I am skeptical about whether or not students who are already uninterested in school would actually dedicate their evenings to more class. Also within the piece, the Durham school administrators credit their attrition of dropouts to smaller, non-traditional schools. One such school, the Performance Learning Center in Durham, allows students to complete self-taught, online curricula, which means that students can work at their own pace. Mentors are employed in order to lead motivational activities and help the students stay on track. Different from alternative schools where students who cannot behave are often sent, the Performance Learning Center is a place where students choose to go.

Allowing students to educate themselves with the use of technology is a great solution. But why do we not try to merge this method into the public high schools that drove these students away? This is the suggestion of one of my favorite bloggers David Warlick, who is both a teacher and a writer. In his post "High School Rant", he expresses that maybe if the public schools were not quite so focused on reading and writing but capable of finding ways to incorporate innovative technologies that would make the classroom a little more entertaining, students would be more likely to stay. While one responder made her point that students need to learn early on that life is not all fun and games, most who commented on Mr. Warlick's post agreed that engaging the students is key. "[Education] should be so compelling that [students] want to be a part of it," expressed one replier. This is where one can see the benefits of more project-based learning. Not all students are cut out to ace standardized tests, nor are they all interested in reading Russian novels. Although these are important, high schools could certianly benefit a certain demographic of students by offering more technical classes to supplement the more traditional classes. Programs like No Child Left Behind are in place to make sure that all students are on equal playing fields, but we should recognize that students have a wide range of talents. Outdated curricula that give students no feeling of choice in what they study can be very discouraging. In fact, one person was quoted in the Hui article stating "...students who are disconnected, or have dropped out, feel that the traditional high school is not a setting where they've been successful, and they don't want to return."

My argument about the need of various programs to suit the needs of different schools slightly changes my previous views on the voucher system. After much discussion and reflection, I believe that the perfect solution to the education system would be a flawless voucher system--a system where any student can go anywhere he wishes. Then, students would feel more like they were personally choosing to attend school and be much more likely to stay. We will always have the behavior cases and the unmotivated students who are just completely uninterested in work of any form. But for those who are motivated, it is only fair that we provide them with incentives to continue to work hard. Since we do not currently have a nation-wide voucher system, we should at least aim to make students feel like they are making personal choices at their own school. We need to present challenges that are fun and interactive, but most importantly, challanges that are different than the typical tests and paper writing. Only then can we say that we gave these students our all.