Eye-opening Facts Regarding High School Dropouts

I watched a video that discusses in depth the plight surrounding the high rate of high school dropouts. It is titled "Silent Epidemic: Perspectives of High School Dropouts".; the discussion took place two years ago at the University of Virginia. I found it on the Research Channel website. After watching it, I found that it revealed some eye-opening statistics regarding details surrounding why the dropout rate is so high. Previously, I had thought that the reason the dropout rate was so high was because there were so many students that had lost hope, become discouraged or bored with school, had no ambition and so on. To some extent, this is true. But what is revealed really surprised me regarding the overall characteristics of the 3.5 million dropout students between the ages of 16 and 25 that were involved in this study. One thing that stood out to me was that 88 percent of the dropouts that were part of the survey had passing grades and many had straight As. They attributed the decision to drop out to serious "disconnects" between school and their dreams and ambitions. They saw no connection between them and what they care about along with real-world experiences and what they were learning. "Real life events" such as having to work and be the provider in the family figure into the dropout equation also. Teenage pregnancy is another; they are not able to stay in school due to not having the help they need to care for the child.

It comes as a shock that a great number of students dropped out because they felt like they were not being challenged enough and wanted more expected of them. This is according to 66 percent of those surveyed. This is a sure sign that we have to challenge our students; they hate being bored and want to be made to think. It is not an issue of a lack of confidence either; 70 percent had confidence that they could graduate. Along with these understandable reasons for dropping out, 81 percent wish they had not dropped out. That surprises me since there seems to be a lot of apathy toward public schools, but it does not surprise me because there are virtually no opportunities for young people these days who have no high school diploma.

Among other factors that contribute to the dropout epidemic include not being involved with extracirricular activities at school; not having an adult relationship or role model to look up to; and parents not being engaged with their children's school progress (and the kids want them to be). Of course, many also skipped school a lot and did not do their work, so of course they are not going to succeed. The interesting thing is that the school does not even contact the student or the parents when the student is truant! Isn't that amazing?

The question "What can we do about it?" was addressed and there were ten ways of working to eliminate this problem that were proposed. I will not discuss all ten but one was different schools for different students that cater to students' specific interests. This could put students on a vocational track with students who share their interests. Changing the legal age to drop out from 16 to 18 would be another. It is important to know that when this law was passed it was done in an agrarian economy. Society has advanced so much technologically that the jobs available for dropouts at that time are gone now. If the age limit is raised to 18 we would see a 25 percent reduction in the dropout rate.

There are a number of ways we can help to correct this overwhelming epidemic if some laws can get passed and we as teachers can do a better job of giving the students what they need. Not only that, but I think parents need to do a better job of contributing to their child's success in their school experiences. Of course circumstances seem to dictate every situation these days but if we can stop making excuses we can improve these conditions.