If you drop out...

 According to new U.S. Census data,

• a bachelor's degree earns an average of $51,554
• a high school diploma earns $28,645
• a high school dropout earns $19,169

         Without a high school diploma you will earn an average of  $19,169 a year, that is around minimum wage. It is becoming harder to find jobs where a high school diploma is not needed. Some jobs where you don't need a high school diploma are cashier, retail sales, short order or fast food cook, construction/laborer, cosmetology and delivery driver. None of these jobs are secure, and you really do not want to do them your whole life. Construction was a decent option at one point when there was a lot of work in the area and it was well paid but today construction work is decreasing and it is becoming harder to find jobs in that field.

Reasons why students quit school

		http://suite101.com/article/dropouts-give-reasons-a8681
		When 500 dropouts, ages 16-25, were interviewed, they gave many reasons for leaving school: 47% said classes were not interesting 43% missed too many days to catch up 45% entered high school poorly prepared by their earlier schooling 69% said they were not motivated to work hard 35% said they were failing 32% said they left to get a job 25% left to become parents 22% left to take care of a relative
		Schools can solve some of the causes to why students dropped out, for example they can make classes more interesting, increase time on the curriculum, and motivate their students more. Teachers can try and make class more interesting by coming up with fun activities in which the students can engage in. From my personal experience I know that not all teachers do this because I have a class in which all we do is busy work. We receive three work sheets every day and all we do is work out of the book. I also agree that some teachers do not spend enough time on the curriculum or prepare you enough. I have had teachers who really don't teach and you must learn the subject on your own. I have also had teachers who can not control the class which prohibits others from learning. Schools can fix this by perhaps hiring teachers who are more adequate. Also not many students have the support or motivation at home; I believe that schools and the staff members should try and get to know their students better in order to help them out and support them. I don't think that many schools have this relationship.

Case Study

In the case of Sparkle, an African-American girl 10th grader at Sharpstown High, the staff members at school were working very hard to help her so that she wouldn't become another drop out. Sparkle had many problems going on in her life that distracted her from school. She sis not have a house to live in, every night she had to find a place to stay in. Last year her mother had died and she had stayed alone with her son, but soon her son was taken away. Her teachers, counselors, and principal were doing all that they could to help her. Sparkle attended school 2 to 3 days per week, on average. Later the school discovered that Sparkle was actually not suppose to attend Sharpstown high because she was not in their district, but either way they continued to help her. In the end it was up to Sparkle to take initiative and start doing things for herself, because the school had already done everything they could, but she didn't instead she gave up school and dropped out. In some cases, like Sparkle's, it is the students responsibility for their  failure because others do all they can to help them but the student does not take advantage.

Dropout Prevention

There is a non-profit organization called the ad council which works on improving the lives of all Americans by improving the quality of children's lives, health, education, community well being an strengthening families. In the program there is an education unit that has several different branches to aid each student. Some of the branches or sub units under education are financial literacy, GED achievement, Hispanic college preparation, and high school dropout prevention. The High Dropout School Prevention sub unit's goal is to raise awareness about the dropout issue, show students case studies of other dropout students and the challenges they have faced. http://www.adcouncil.org/Our-Work/Current-Work/Education/High-School-Dropout-Prevention

What is the government doing ?

    There is a government program called High School Graduation Initiative also known as School Dropout Prevention program. The purpose of it is for academic improvement. What the program does is award grants to education agencies, supporting dropout prevention, and re-entry efforts.

    My question is weather the money given to school from this program is used effectively? and if schools use it only for this purpose.
www2.ed.gov/programs/dropout/index.html

Dropout Factories

  

     Recently, I watched a two hour episode, on PBS, about the large number of dropouts in Sharpstown High School in Houston, Texas. (sharpstown high ) The high school is known as a dropout factory due to the large numbers of students quitting school every year. The video focuses on four particular students. I found it interesting that many of the students in Sharpstown high were primarily from colored backgrounds and of low income families. All four of these kids have one thing in common, poverty. All four students are facing extremely difficult problems in their personal lives that are causing them to fail classes, miss school, and in some cause misdemeanor. Many of the students do not have an adult in their lives, others don't even have a home,or food to eat.
    The district asked some kids why it was that they decided to drop out; some of them answered that school was not interesting, it wasn't challenging, and that no one cared about them there.  In my opinion, this is the part that schools can change. Sharpstown decided to join a program called the Apollo 20. Apollo 20 has five strategies to help students in school. The first is Human Capital, second is increase time on task, third is high  dosage of tutoring, fourth is culture of high expectations, fifth data driven instruction. I found very interesting that they arranged, what they call a data room, where the information of every student on campus is diligently organized in a specific way to view their periods, test scores, and grades.
    In the video, Sharpstown High hits a barrier when the board of education does not want to aid the high school with money from their budget to offer more help for Sharpstown students, The question that keeps being brought up from the board is "Why spend so money on THOSE kids?" Then perhaps .the board can be held accountable for the higher dropout rate in some schools.This brings up the question of are schools doing enough? Are we giving up on our students? In the video, you can see a lot, if not most of the staff in the high school, being very involved in the students academic life. They are aware of when they miss school and how they are doing in class and if they are not doing well they make sure to have a talk with them. This bring up another question is our staff involved? Do they care to meet the students? What changes can schools make?

Shewanda Pugh, in the short article "Cause and Effect of Dropouts," discusses the possible reasons for why teenage dropout of high school and how their acts affect themselves and society. Pugh uses facts, statistics, and outside knowledge to support her arguments. She states that the rate for dropouts is higher in low income students, and minorities. Many times with minorities there is a need for income and for this reason quit school and work instead. She also mentions that many times students from immigrant parents have a harder time with school because at times their parents are non English speakers and for this reason cannot provide additional learning support. Pugh also mentions systematic reasons to why students end up dropping out such as over crowded classrooms, lacking of support staff needed to aid students at risk, and budget cuts. She mentions the personal cost for dropping out and the societal cost of dropping out. She states that a high school dropout earns just 60 percent of what an individual with a high school diploma would earn and only 40 percent of what a college graduate would earn. She also states that students who fail to earn the 40 to 60 percent they forfeit around 50 billion dollars in state and federal tax dollars which is used to sustain communities.
link

Personal Experience

       I am a first generation born American in my family. My mom came to the United States at a young age thinking in her kids who were non existing to that point. Her life,so far, had been a struggle of a humble woman in poverty. She only completed first, second, and third grade. After third grade her mom took her out of school and introduced her to the work world. She worked hard all day. She envied her sister who had the great opportunity of attending school. She begged her mother to let her go back to school. Not till three years later did she let her return to school. My mom entered sixth grade, and despite not attending school for 3 years she caught up very quickly and got straight A's. But very soon her mother took her out school once again to have her work again to help sustain the family. At the age of 22 my mom came to the U.S in hope of a better life for herself but most of all for her kids. My mom was not pregnant but she knew she would have children some day, and that one thought drove her to seek a better future and opportunities for her to be kids.
         From my personal experience, one of the reasons why Hispanic students are more likely to drop out is due to the lack of parent involvement in their kid's education. In my case, despite my mother's interest in our education and her encouragement she was incapable of aiding us in our education. She was and still is a single mother; she didn't have the time to go to school meetings and involve herself in our life at school. We had to find within ourselves motivation to do good in school and complete our homework. When we had questions we had to find the answers on our own. The only way my mom helped us was by giving us verbal support; by trying to encourage us to complete school and acquire a career in which we can always rely on. She would tell us to do good in school so that we could become someone in life and not have to break our backs like her. My mom never learned how to speak English but that really wasn't an excuse to why she couldn't get involved. I think that many times Hispanic parents think that just because we speak the language (English), and therefore have a greater advantage than they do, then we can figure things out on our own. Which really is not correct, we still need guidance.

 

 link to article (facts)

Approximately 1.3 million students fail to graduate from high school each year. More than half of the students who do not complete high school are students of colored backgrounds. A student who is in the one of the colored ethnicity or in a low income family is seven times more likely to dropout than one of the students who is in the higher rank of graduating or of a higher income. Why is this?

      Today, we live in a technologically advanced world with high standards. The government stresses the importance of education in order to succeed individually and as a nation. The government funds public education (free education) to provide all kids with an opportunity of obtaining an education. Currently, most jobs require at least a high school diploma from their employees. Yet, every day thousands of teenagers in the United States are dropping out of high school. You might say well why does this concern me? It is their decision so why should I care? High school dropouts are both an economic and social problem. Those who quit high school and do not obtain a high school diploma have a harder time obtaining a job, and when they do, more often than not it is a low pay. This means that they must apply for government aid. Government programs like welfare, and medicaid. This means that you're taxes are going to all those students who decide to not finish high school instead of going to other facilities in need. If the United States likely dropouts from the class of 2006 had graduated, the nation could have saved more than 17 billion dollars in medicaid and expenditures for uninsured health over the course of those people's lifetime.(link to the article) Students failure to complete high school can affect the individual and the people around him as well. By not continuing school, students may pick up unwanted habits because they do not have a distraction. Thia may also cause the student, sometime later in life, to feel alienated by society. They may feel as if they are not as good as everyone else who did complete high school. High school dropouts are an economic, educational, and social problem that we as a society should try and solve.