Dropout Dilemma

The alarming high school dropout rate has spurred school administrators and policymakers to action.

Dropout has long been a concern. “The problem has been present all along,” said Dianne Mero, a consultant for the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP). The NASSP issued a new report, “What Counts: Defining and Improving High School Graduation Rates,” on April 12 that details the problems and puts forth solutions.

Though there is a consensus on the problems created by declining graduation rates, there is no standard for determining a dropout rate. According to Gerald Tirozzi, Executive Director of the NASSP, there is a need for a common definition of a graduation rate. A number of factors confuse statistics, often unfairly, on graduation rates, such as frequent school transfers among students. Under the current system, “principals are caught in the middle,” Tirozzi said.

The NASSP suggests that a new system of student-data tracking be implemented and that a national commission be organized in order to better determine graduation rate figures.

The dropout rate has grown as the curriculum has toughened. High school has become harder while support for struggling students has not changed, said Robert Balfanz, an education policy expert at Johns Hopkins. He describes the failure of schools as a “quiet crisis” that affects about one-fifth of the nation’s schools. According to Balfanz, there are three tiers of high schools. Twenty percent are effective, 60% are average to below average, and the remaining 15 to 20% are ineffective. These schools produce half of the nation’s dropouts.

High school dropouts exact a social cost and are disproportionately unemployed. High schools have failed even those students who graduate. According to former West Virginia governor Bob Wise [pictured], two-thirds of high school and college graduates do not enter the workforce with the necessary skills. When students enter the ninth-grade, 70% read below-grade level.

According to Clifford Janey, superintendent of schools in Washington, D.C., high-school dropouts cost the U.S. economy $200 billion each year. Educational achievement enhances job opportunities and prevents crime and illness, according to Janey. In some states, reading scores in the 3rd grade are used to predict prison staffing needs.

In order to improve graduation numbers, educators must abandon traditional concepts of high-school curriculum, such as the standard four-year time frame. Time should be a variable, according to Janey, and students should have the opportunity to graduate in three, four, or five years. Studies have shown that a fifth year of high school has no effect on performance following graduation, according to Janey.

Traditional divisions of grades, such as K-5 or 6-8, should also be rethought. At-risk students often perform better when they remain at the same school. In Rochester, NY, where Janey previously served as superintendent, the district improved the success of an at-risk school by implementing a K-14 curriculum. Students could enter the school as kindergarteners and leave with an associate’s degree.

The NASSP, in order to improve graduation rates, suggests a “new and separate funding stream” for at-risk high school students, at a cost of $3.5 billion. In addition, the NASSP seeks the expansion of literacy programs for teens and a prioritization on “student mastery of subject rather than just completion of seat time.”

The four-year time frame currently in place in high schools often creates a “disincentive” to increase the graduation rate, according to Balfanz.

Larry Scholer is a staff writer at Accuracy in Academia.