“Increasingly, it is being recognized that the issues of dropping out and dropout prevention cannot be separated from issues affecting our total economic and social structure. These issues include poverty, unemployment, discrimination, the role of the family, social values, the welfare cycle, child abuse, and drug abuse.”
-Peck, Law, and Mills 1987
The dictionary states that a drop out is a student who withdraws before completing a course of instruction. Throughout the years, the dropout rate has fluctuated, but often in a negative way. The goal for 2000 was to increase the graduation rate by 90 percent. It was reported in 1993 that there had been very little progress towards achieving that goal.
People drop out for many reasons. Poor academic achievement is an indicator that one may not feel it necessary to complete a course of instruction. It has been said that those who have repeated a grade are twice more likely to drop out than someone who had never failed or repeated a grade. Students who have had to repeat more than one grade were four times as likely to drop out before graduation.
Parents also play a role in how a student does in school. Whether a student attends high school successfully through graduation or not can often depend on their home life. Homes that are stressful make it harder to concentrate on school work. Parents who haven’t completed high school sometimes make the student feel like they can’t complete high school either. Single-parent households often make a student feel unsupported in their academic accomplishments, and a primary language other than English make the material harder to understand. All of these contribute to a student’s motivation to graduate.
Not completing a course of education is not the worst consequence of dropping out. Many long-term consequences follow. Employment opportunities are often limited, because the work force requires higher education, along with literacy, and enhanced technological skills. Engagement in premature sexual activity, early pregnancy, crime, drug and alcohol abuse, and suicide has also been reported higher among dropouts than graduates. Also, reliance on welfare or other social programs are more likely among dropouts. Dropouts receive $200,000 less than high school graduates, and over $800,000 less than college graduates throughout their lives. They also make up nearly half of the prison population.
There are many warning signs that one may drop out. Recent statistics have shown that students who live in larger cities are twice as likely to drop out before graduating. Also, more than one in four Hispanics drop out by eighth grade. Over half of all students who drop out have reported to leave by the tenth grade. 8% of dropouts have lived in a juvenile home or shelter. One-third have been suspended, or put on probation, and nearly 12% of dropouts run away from home.
Unfortunately, progress towards decreasing the dropout rate has not been successful, but new and different ways are being proposed all the time. It has been suggested that arranging for help with making up missing work, along with tutoring could help keep students in school. Helping with personal problems is another way to decrease the dropout rate. In a typical school, there is only one certified guidance counselor per every 500 students. Some schools report only having one in the entire building. If students have a reliable adult they can go to for help, whether school related or not, the dropout rate could decrease tremendously. Hiring more guidance counselors is a simple answer. Also, if students are made aware of the potential consequences of their decisions, such as deciding to become parents in high school, failing classes, or behaving badly before it gets to the point where they feel dropping out is the only answer, they could make amends and successfully complete school.
The United States will never have a perfect graduation rate, but progress towards decreasing the dropout rate is crucial towards achieving a more successful nation. From year to year, the dropout rate changes, but by showing parental and counselor involvement, along with making the consequences of dropping out obvious, students will hopefully realize how important education really is.
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