I remember when I was in high school. Yes, cue the old lady voice. It wasn't that long ago. Okay, maybe it was. But I don't remember that many dropouts. There were some, and many of them went on to be successful and happy, but as the saying goes, times have changed.
The rate of kids who ditch school is rising -- right now 1 in 4 drop out. One in 4. This scares me. Mostly because I feel it's us -- the parents -- failing our kids. What the heck are we doing wrong? It's not just us. It's the school system, too. And even though former Secretary of State Colin Powell and his children's advocacy group America's Promise Alliance are working toward a goal of a 90 percent graduation rate in America by 2020, the current dropout rates aren't promising at all.
Wisconsin is the only state to meet the goal of a 90 percent graduation rate with Vermont close behind. Does it make you want to move there? Yet the schools in New York and Tennessee are showing increasing drop out rates, which isn't good news for me since we live in New York. What is going on in these two states? Why aren't kids staying in school? It's not just those two states "failing" our kids.
The Alliance had some detail on Nevada, which stood out for a really low graduation rate of 56 percent -- which is an insane number. More than half!? It was discovered that many kids dropped out because they found they could earn good money working on the Las Vegas Strip doing jobs like parking cars and pouring concrete (and who knows what else!). Those kids are out of work today because of the economy. Yes, many very well-educated people are out of work too because of the crap economy but the more education a person has, the better their chances of getting certain jobs.
Of course there are many, many very successful and smart people who are high school dropouts, but for me, when it comes to my kids I'd like them to finish high school, attend college, sow their educational oats if you will. And yes, if they drop out, I'll feel like a failure. Like I failed them as their mother. Is it that we aren't paying enough attention to our child's education? Are we not seeing the signs of a school that is failing our kids or teachers that aren't engaging our kids enough? Is the rise in teen pregnancies to blame?
High school grads are estimated to earn $130,000 more over their lifetimes than dropouts. But for me it's more than just money on why I want my kids to finish high school. It's for their minds. President Barack Obama has even encouraged states to pass laws that would require students to stay in school until they graduate or they turn 18. I'm very mixed on this. What if it's the school's fault? How is staying in a school that is failing a child going to help that child truly learn?
More needs to be done to get kids excited about learning. There isn't one answer, but the answers do start with us as parents. We have to do more.
What do you think of this high dropout rate? Do you think Obama's idea to have laws to require kids to stay in school until they graduate or turn 18 a good idea?
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Comments 31
Yes! They should stay in school until 18 or graduation.
I didn't finish high school, and sometimes I regret it...but not most of the time. I did get my GED and am going through the steps to go to college in the fall (finally) but I can assure you, it's probably not the parents.
For me, it was the horrible teachers and their lack of concern with whether or not the students succeeded. Granted, I don't know how schools all over the country's teachers are. Just the schools I attended. There were just a select few teachers that really seemed to care, and the rest only cared about a few "star" students...like most of them became teachers so they could relive their high school glory days. It is sad, but all you can do is encourage them and hope when they hit 18 they decide to finish.
The drop out rate often just tracks if a child that started at one school as a freshman graduates at that same school in four years. So if you transfer schools at anytime during your high school years they count you as a dropout. I would have been concidered a drop out because I transferred schools even though I graduated with honors from the school I transfered to (and then went on to get a bachelors and a masters afterwords).
Teachers aren't to blame for kids dropping out. That happens because someone in their life let them think that it was acceptable to quit. Kids that try rarely fail their classes while they're in K-12 schools. Kids fail because they don't complete their assignments and try.
I had pleeeeeenty of problems at home, my parents always fighting, divorce, courts, hospitals, etc and if my mother didn't HOUND me, always asking, checking, I would've surely stopped caring.
People DIE to come to this country and get higher forms of education. My own mother migrated to the US, learned the language, went to college, became a teacher. I definitely saw her as my role model and too, became a teacher.
Yes, kids should be made to graduate from HS. Even in my day, 40 years ago, I didn't know a single person who failed to graduate. Plenty of them didn't go to college and turned out well. These days I know of friends of my children who have four years of college who are doing the very jobs my HS grad friends did in the 70's...........Today, without, at least, a HS diploma they don't stand a chance.
I'd love to see every child graduate but honestly, you can't make anyone do anything they don't want to do. I think forcing them to stay in school is the wrong thing to do. There will always be kids who know early on what they want to do and if their lives are miserable, they may want to quit, get their GED and get on with their lives and go to some kind of a trade school or start college early. We all have our own story and their home life could be nonexistent or abusive. I don't believe you can or should force anything. Parents who are involved will see to it their kids graduate and if the parents don't care, how can you force the child? You might be doing them a disservice if they really need to get away from home.
I did a study on this with my class. The drop out rate among public schools is pretty high. And you can't get a GED til 18, so it's not like they are getting on with their lives, they might as well graduate at 18 then.