Essay about Academic Proposal: Michigan’s Graduation Rate

With the workforce becoming more competitive in today’s economy, the educational requirements have increased. By the year 2020, approximately 65% of all jobs in the United States will require a postsecondary education and/or further training proceeding high school education (“Recovery”). One thing that is not increasing is the rate of college enrollment of students from the Detroit Public Schools or college enrollment in general. There are many factors that contribute to this problem, just as there are also many solutions that may help assuage it. The main reason why students from Detroit Public Schools are not enrolling in postsecondary education institutions has to do with their financial situation.

For some students, race is a central part of their identity. The struggles they face with it determines the achievements that they can present to the admissions officers. Despite the current ban on the usage of race in college admissions in Michigan, admissions officers should not ignore any part of a student’s unique circumstances, which may be related to one’s socioeconomic status, race, or both. In the article, “Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Educational Apartheid,” Kozol argues that the ongoing racial segregation and the lack of funding in schools consisting primarily of blacks and Hispanics are putting the poor and minority children at an disadvantage by not providing them a chance to have good teachers, classrooms, and other resources. While universities use scores to assess the academic ability of a student, minorities who attend schools segregated based on race or socioeconomic status may excel at what they are given, have the

The affect of low socioeconomic status is still influential among high achieving students, with the likelihood of achieving a bachelor’s degree increasing with socioeconomic status on students that scored in the upper quartile of an eighth grade math exam (Lee et all., 2008). Race is still an indicator of academic achievement, but its direct and indirect effects are less strong (Lee et all., 2008). Students of majority race (White and Asian) complete high school at a rate of 93%, while students of the non-asian minority complete high school at a rate of 85% (Lee et all., 2008). The gap between students of differing socioeconomic status was far wider, of 44 percentage points, as compared to the gap between races and high school completion rates, which is 8 percentage points. Differences in gender also shows discrepancies, with 31% of females receiving at least a bachelor’s degree and only 26% of males receiving at least a bachelor’s degree.

Chen’s state graduation rate data referenced the U.S. Department of Education to compare against her national percentages; this strengthened her findings. According to Nhan (2012), the Department of Education did not release national averages for race/ethnicity groups because several states had requested deadline extensions for these numbers, resulting in an incomplete data set. Thus, California’s progress is difficult to measure against that of the United States. Additionally, Chen’s results did not provide the rates for sub-divided racial/ethnic groups like that of California. This difference in how students are labeled and/or reported may skew the national population demographic for each of Chen’s three reported minorities. In spite of this, her data portrays that Asian and Latino students in the U.S. have significantly lower graduation rates than in California. Nationally, recent immigration and non-high school attendance in the U.S. contributes to the low percent for Latino students (Child Trends, 2013). Adversely, graduation rates for Black students in California reflect the national average. Overall, these statistics point out that educational resources need to be more effectively allocated to focus on California’s Black communities and to Asian and Latino communities nationwide.

Students from racialized backgrounds face robust barriers to their success in high schools. While high school graduation rates are raising as a whole, students from racialized background are graduating high school less that their peers of the dominant racial group. These students have many different variables that limit their educational outcomes. “While education is the institution used in America to distribute social status and economic power, and facilitate how society functions, it has not been accepted or provided equal opportunity to all members of society.”(Boyd, Gordon, Iwamoto, Potts, Ward, 2009)

This evaluation is focused on a school district with 3, 000 high school students in New Jersey. The statistics were gathered from the student management system for this school district the 3,0000 high school students attend two high schools {High School “A” and High School “B”} during the 2014-15 school year. The racial makeup consists of: high school “A”, 78.6 percent of students identified as white, 14.8 Hispanic, 3.3 percent black and 2.7 percent Asian. At high school “B”, 82.8 percent of students were white, followed by 8.4 percent Hispanic, 5.5 percent black and 2.6 percent Asian. The overall graduation rate at High School “A” was 80 percent, and at High School “B”, 87 percent of students graduate.

In today’s world, a college diploma seems to rank as highly valuable in the job market. With that in mind, it 's no surprise that high school graduates are swarming to college campuses with good intentions of being successful academic achievers, ultimately leading to a high paying career. Of these students bearing high school diplomas, are those who are perfectly qualified to meet the demands of college course work, and those who are underprepared for such an endeavor. Over the past few decades, Higher education has no longer been an exclusive luxury for high-class, academically successful students. Now, students who experienced an unsuccessful high school career are being supported and encouraged to attend college more than ever before. While this poses a great opportunity, predominately, it presents implications affecting a large population. Ultimately, by encouraging underprepared students to attend college, society only creates predicaments that are damaging to community colleges, tax payers and all students alike.

Parents are starting to question of the importance of a college degree and its importance to a successful life. Society says “without college you have very little opportunity to make something of yourself” or find a well paying job… but many people have fought against those odds to pursue their dream, drop out of college and become successful doing it. Why? Because they knew what they wanted to do and college wasn't the only key to their success. Although some do receive college education, some are left with large sums of debt with a career/job that can’t pay it off like they planned. College is not the only key to success.

In addition, when parents don’t get involved with the students school life, students find it easier to fall through the cracks and end up dropping out. “Thirty eight percent believed they had “too much freedom” and not enough rules”. It was too easy to skip class or engage in activities outside of schools,” (Bridgeland 4).

"Research has clearly proven that student achievement improves when parents are involved in their child's education" (2010). When an education system comes together with the family of their students, the children tend to have a better understanding of the importance of school and working their best to become as educated as they can be. Students who have not involved parents may feel that they are at school only to be away from their parents. There are many reasons why children drop out of school so it is the job of the school system and families to do whatever it takes to get the student involved in their education. Once the student knows that everyone around them is supporting their educational needs they are more likely to have a positive outlook towards school. When they then become a parent they are more likely willing to be a partner in their future children's educational experiences because of their positive attitude towards learning.

Students today are still inferior to White’s when measuring academic success by variables such as high school GPA, standardized testing, college acceptance, and college graduation. Other variables such as peer influence, parent expectations, and socioeconomic status has been seen as significant contributions to Latino and African American academic success (Davis ad Otto This is a real problem within the United States of America as there is still an academic gap. The educational pipeline has shown that 44% of Mexican students entering the educational pipeline did not complete their high school diploma. Twenty-seven percent of the high school graduates went on to college and only 10% completed their bachelor’s degree (Covarrubias,

Yes Freda parental involvement is critical through out the world for any school. According to research family factors plays a major role in teacher’s ability to teach students. Coupled with, principals and teachers agree that what is going on at home impact a student’s propensity to learn. Especially, when some teachers and administers try to work with children in less than ideal family environments, we can only do so much. Particularly, when parents are often not willing to partner with the schools to provide for the children. On a high note the earlier in a child’s educational process parent involvement begins, the more powerful the effects. Also the most effective forms of parent involvement are those that engage parents in working directly

In 2015, the U.S. Department of Education announced that the overall graduation rate peaked at eight-two percent during the 2013-2014 school year. (Kamenetz 2015:1). According to Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education, graduation rates have been steadily improving since a tracking system was adopted to monitor it. This rate can also be attributed to the fact that initial warning systems have been adopted to ensure that students remain on track to graduation. Additional diploma tracks have also been offered to protect graduation rates. This can also be paralleled to the fact that the high school dropout rate among those aged sixteen to twenty-four has decreased from 10.9 percent in 2009 to 6.8 percent in 2013 (NCES 2015:4). Nonetheless, if more students are graduating from high school than in the past, it is important to examine where they are going afterward. In the fall of 2015, 20.2 million students enrolled in American colleges and universities. This data illustrates that there has been a 4.9 million increase in students attending American colleges and universities since 2000 (NCES 2015:5). Furthermore, 65.5 percent of students enrolled in a college or university immediately after graduating from high school in 2013. Thus, most students enrolled in public schools graduate and attend college, unlike in the past. These rates may be attributed to the fact that it is much more vital to possess a high school diploma and college degree than in the past, regardless of the state of public education. However, these rates still indicate the emergence of positive academic and social outcomes in public

The quality of education is derived from the quality of the opportunities afforded. The article addresses the unbalance of these opportunities between schools of color versus those of white or non-Asian decent (Darling-Hammond, 1998). It is the belief that race and ethnic background is a key contributor to low academic performance, however, that is simply not the case. Minority schools are afforded less key educational opportunities thus leading to the academic achievement gaps.

There are many reasons that parents should get involved in their children’s school. Students who have concerned and involved parents tend to get better grades. When a parent asks questions about homework and assignments, supervises to make sure that they get done, and even helps with homework, it is more likely that assignments will be completed and handed in on time. Another factor in grades is attendance. With a low attendance rate, assignments will be missed, and the student will get behind in content as well. Parents who do not get involved in the school might not know that their child is not attending on a regular basis, or even care if their child goes.