Knocking Out the Dropout Rate

Dropout Prevention The high costs associated with dropping out make clear the need for programs to help students stay in school. The Dropout Prevention Center/Network lists hundreds of dropout-prevention programs in its online database of "model programs." 61 Only relatively few of these programs, however, have been rigorously evaluated for effectiveness.

Are you sitting down? Each year, more than a million kids will leave school without earning a high school diploma -- that's approximately 7,000 students every day of the academic year.

Credit: Wesley Bedrosian

Dropouts Cost Everyone Something! There are both personal and societal costs of dropping out. The loss of taxes, loss of production and the cost of assistance provided to dropouts make the problem of high school non-completion an issue for every taxpayer.

by Leslie F. Hale, Ed.D., NCSP, Bartlesville, OK and Andrea Canter, Ph.D., NCSP, Minneapolis Schools High School

While reading through the posts in the "Exclusive Commentary" section of this website, I was struck by the number of useful proposals for combating poverty. We've heard good ideas on food stamps, marriage, the EITC, health, and supporting fathers. There is at least one cause of poverty, however, that deserves more attention: high school dropout rates.

Nonprofit educational organization OneGoal has partnered with Chicago public school to push kids at risk of dropping out of high school to persist and attend college. Ash-har Quraishi of WTTW Chicago reports for our American Graduate project on the special curriculum that hones leadership skills these kids often already have.

Have you ever plunked yourself down in a staff meeting where some of your colleagues were, for lack of a better phrase, not paying attention? Grading homework? Having private conversations? Texting? As we know all too well, kids aren't a whole lot different than adults: If they aren't absorbed by what's going on, they'll find something else that interests them.

Here's an excerpt from Larry Ferlazzo's new book, "Classroom Q & As: Expert Strategies For Teaching," recently published by Education Week. It's a compilation of some of the weekly teacher advice columns he writes for Ed Week, and includes contributions from acclaimed educators from across the United States.

As a nation, we're very keen to stem the tide of dropouts from our schools, but we seem oddly cold to the fates of those who have already dropped out. With schools having little incentive to woo their dropouts back into the classroom, students themselves may feel little reason to return.

Picture this: A fifteen-year-old girl attending an overcrowded high school in a big city is struggling to stay focused. School seems dull, irrelevant, and, most of all, uncaring. No one seems to notice whether she's there or not, whether she understands the material, or whether things are unstable at home.

A remarkable story of coming back to school!

Jennifer Ng'andu Working to promote the social and emotional wellbeing of all children and families and to mitigate the effects of violence and trauma. It has been said to me many times that it's the child who is acting out that needs you the most.

Since 1986, the National Dropout Prevention Center/Network (NDPC/N) has conducted and analyzed research, sponsored extensive workshops, and collaborated with a variety of practitioners to further the mission of reducing school dropout rates by meeting the needs of youth in at-risk situations, including students with disabilities.

How to Lower the Dropout Rate? Sam Houston High School did it by finding out why students dropped out and brought them back to school. Boredom and lack of meaningful instruction were the number one reasons.

Low-achieving students in many school districts are retained in a grade in order to allow them to gain
the academic or social skills that teachers believe are necessary to succeed academically. This practice
is highly controversial, with many researchers claiming that it leads to higher dropout rates although
selection issues have complicated previous analyses. In this paper, we use a regression discontinuity
design to examine the impact of grade retention on high school completion. We find that grade retention
leads to a modest increase in the probability of dropping out for older students, but has no significant
effect on younger students.

Today's expectation that all students will meet high standards has contributed to a backlash against "social promotion." In this environment, grade retention has been making a comeback.

The Secret of Retention
“The secret of successful retention programs is
no secret at all, but a reaffirmation of some of the
important foundations of higher education. In
short, retention is no more than, but certainly no
less than, successful education.”

The purpose of this study was to examine student retention and student success in high school, college,
and university. Areas studied include: definition of student retention and student success, college success
and student success, variables impacting student success, factors affecting graduation rates from
underrepresented populations, ways of helping students stay in school, how Ohio State University and
Clark School of Engineering retained students. The study found that supportive staffs, focusing on
students’ individual and academic needs, and positive modeling, enhance student retention. The learning
processes must be alive from the first day of class and must be taught by caring faculty.

Part 2 in a two-part series looking into dropout rates in Sioux City, Iowa, and across the nation. Part 2 looks into how the school district was able to cut dropout rates within four years.

1. That's how many kids dropped out of school last year in the Sioux City Community School District. Part 1 of a two-part series shows why these kids are dropping out.

Student retention is one of the most widely studied areas in higher education.
In addition to the extensive body of research literature that now spans more
than four decades, there are books and edited volumes, a journal, and a variety
of conferences dedicated solely to student retention. There has also been considerable
theoretical work and no small amount of debate as to the character of
student retention. Several edited volumes and numerous articles have debated the
merits of various theoretical models each of which have been posited as a more
accurate portrayal of the process of student retention. The result has been an ever
more sophisticated understanding of the complex web of events that shape student
leaving and persistence.

One of the most prominent student retention theorists is Vincent Tinto. Tinto's theory, first published in 1975, focused on 4-year institutions, but his findings are also applicable to community colleges. According to Tinto, individuals possess attributes (such as family background, skills, abilities, and prior education) that influence their choices of goals and commitments.

Though this speaks to "higher education" these same principles could be applied to secondary education.

By Patricia Harrison When I attended the taping of TED Talks Education last month at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, I knew I was witnessing an innovative collaboration with the potential to make a difference in the lives of many young people.

Sir Ken Robinson outlines 3 principles crucial for the human mind to flourish -- and how current education culture works against them. In a funny, stirring talk he tells us how to get out of the educational "death valley" we now face, and how to nurture our youngest generations with a climate of possibility.

Credit: Hugh D'Andrade Shamela Armstead jumps off a city bus and heads briskly into Seattle's Northgate Mall. The energetic sixteen-year-old skirts the adolescent allure of the Sunglass Hut and the California Pizza Kitchen before dashing upstairs. It's only eight in the morning, but Armstead isn't skipping school.Just the opposite -- she's attending it.

Armstead is one of seventy-five high schoolers enrolled at the Mall Academy, an offbeat place that gives underachieving students a way to earn their diploma. "We figured that a lot of kids are going to be hanging out at the mall anyway, so why not put a school there?" says Karen Hansen, a humanities teacher. "At first, people think it's just for kids who like to shop. It's not. It's for kids who want to graduate."

This unique Las Vegas high school prevents dropouts by accommodating students with full-time day jobs and other responsibilities. It offers an extended day, flexible scheduling, and an on-campus daycare. Tip: Did you know you can "favorite" this video to bookmark it?