College Dropout Research

In his essay titled “Hidden Intellectualism”, Gerald Graff questions the traditional academic approach that correlates the school curriculum of colleges and high schools with intelligence. He believes that schools may not be promoting the full potential of students because they rely too much on the academic skills rather than the topics themselves. This means that schools often focus on the analysis and interpretation of academic papers rather than considering expanding the curriculum to have more topics that interest students. As a result, many students cannot express their true potential because they cannot get engaged in these school enforced topics. Schools underestimate their “hidden intelligence” because they do not try to promote their

In today’s society it has become even more crucial to obtain knowledge and graduate from high school. In the article “The True Cost of High School Dropouts” Henry M. Levin and Cecilia E. Rouse explain that the dropout rate imposes a heavy cost on the economy. Henry M. Levin is a professor of economics and education at Columbia University. Cecilia E. Rouse is a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University. She also was a member of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers from 2009 to 2011. This article was found on “The New York Times” and was published Jan. 25th, 2012. They begin with stating the facts and giving sources to build credibility. They then go into what is being done wrong and what needs to be done in order to improve.

Whether we realize it or not, test scores play a vital role in many people’s self esteem. A person who frequently scores high will be confident that they are very intelligent and will expect others to see them that way. Asimov attested to this when he stated, “All my life I’ve been registering scores like that, so that I have the complacent feeling that I’m highly intelligent, and I expect other people to think that too.” (Asimov, 536). On the other hand, those who score low on tests often write themselves off to be unintelligent. Emphasis on the importance of the ACT or SAT test scores can lead an adolescent to conclude that he or she is not capable of succeeding in college and lead them to not pursue higher education. The tragedy is that we may pass on opportunities because we have labelled ourselves unintelligent based on a test score which is not a true refelection of our

Purdue University psychologist Patricia Linehan writes: "A body of research on conceptions of ability has shown two orientations toward ability. Students with an Incremental orientation believe ability (intelligence) to be malleable, a quality that increases with effort. Students with an Entity orientation believe ability to be nonmalleable, a fixed quality of self that does not increase with effort." 1

In October 2000, the overall picture of high school dropouts had changed little since the late 1980s (Kaufman et al. 2001): For every 100 young adults enrolled in high school in October 1999, 5 had left school without completing a program; of 34.6 million U.S. young adults aged 16-24, 3.8 million—almost 11 percent—had not completed high school and were not enrolled. Some studies have shown that students in schools with a concentration of multiple risk factors (e.g., large schools, large classes, high poverty, inner city location) have less than one chance in two of graduating from high school; furthermore, the economic costs of dropping out have increased as time goes on (Castellano et al. 2001). Adjusting for 50

Along with the average tuition increasing, so has the average income of Americans. In order to afford college tuition, student loans, financial aid, and scholarships come in handy for the time being. Unfortunately, American’s who have finished college still have a load of debt to pay off for many years after graduating. Americans are spending money they don 't have to finance educations they are not sure are worth it. In some cases, students who find jobs right out of high school are left without college debt, but also without a degree. On the other hand, many people who attend college have large college debts yet have a decent

In the reading “The College Dropout Boom,” the author, David Leonhardt, describes the college admissions system as being ruthlessly meritocratic. When looking at the word meritocratic, one can visualize it as the construction of two parts: the word merit and the suffix “-ocracy”. The word merit can be defined as the deserving of reward for past actions and the suffix “-ocracy” is understood as a form of governing body. Therefore, meritocracy without context means a form of governing body which rewards deserving individuals based upon their past actions. From this definition, it is quite obvious why David Leonhardt used the word meritocracy to describe the college admissions system. According to Leonhardt, students are admitted into college

In his essay Hidden Intellectualism, Gerald Graff emphasizes the idea that to be an intellectual one does not have to excel in school. Graff argues that a person’s intelligence should not be measured by solely what they learned and how they progressed through school, rather, intelligence should be measured by more secular standards. Throughout the essay, Graff provides many examples on how this biased view of intellectualism affected him and others in his childhood and how he suggests that school curriculum be changed to better reflect the different types of intellectualism.

The United States is known to offer the students one of the best educations in the world, unfortunately, there are 2-3 million youths aged, 16-24 years’ old who are without postsecondary education and are "disconnected". “By “disconnected” we mean, young people who are not in school and have been out of work for a substantial period, roughly a year or more” (239). This shows that many young men have no interest in learning but are taking away from those who had an education and can't find a job or got laid off, which isn't fair. Others from the age 16-24, are not enrolled in school and seem to not have a consistent income. People disconnected from the world will lack employment and earnings which will affect their future wages and job opportunity.

Many high school students succeed with a little leniency through their four years. The transfer from high school to college becomes overwhelming and a struggle for some. For students do not comprehend the importance of changing more than their location during the transition. A student must be psychologically, physically, and emotionally mature to pursue college and not venture into a point of no return. Dropping out of college makes the outlook of the conversion difficult to acquire. Individuals should take their time on deciding which college and/or university is the best match for them. There are various reasons that cause persons not to prosper. Issues that individuals may come upon might leave a lifelong scar. Matters such as these

For the Topic of the “College Dropout Boom”, David Leonhardt makes interesting points on the topic of education and society’s views on education. Some of the ideas that he presented were debatable in my opinion, but most every point that he addressed was correct. Growing up in a household where both of my parents achieved a college education, I can personally say it extremely important in this day and age to get a college degree, regardless of the immediate outcome. It will give you an immense edge on the competition that you will face while applying for jobs in the future.

America's Broken Education System - Full Documentary 2016 shows that people think education is only key to success and there is no other way. They also think that getting a good education means expensing more money for it. Teachers also don't think outside of the box and they are limited to give education at a level. There are also private college and university who are getting more advantage of this by charging lots of money. However, to get a good career, a student admitted to a good college and then come cost for over 100,000 dollars’ tuition and expensive books. At a time, they take the loan. Some of them try to pay the loan after working so many years. For that, they cannot make their dreams come true what they expected before like buying an own house and stuff like that. Also, some students just don't finish the education and get in

Since the beginning of the 20th Century, college education has been available for everyone and anyone who is willing to develop their knowledge regarding a specific professional field. Currently in the United States, the percentage of high school graduates going to college has increased considerably: 68 percent in 2011 compared to 49 percent in 1940 (Menand, 2) and the record high set in 2009 with 70 percent of total high school graduates enrolled in college ("Bureau of Labor Statistics"). Notwithstanding, it has come to the attention of many that the college tuition and fees have been increasing at an accelerated rate. According to The New York Times, college tuition and fees increased 439 percent from 1982 to 2007 (Lewin, 1). This

Thesis Statement: More and more students drop out each year. Those who dropped out have various reasons. The alarming rates of drop outs have led them to a bleak future wherein such incident requires the attention and immediate action of various school authorities.

Life is believed to be easier for people with higher degrees than for those without higher degrees. Hence, it is the joy of parents to see their children admitted into a higher institution. With the high cost attached to attending a four year university, most students prefer to attend community colleges. Community colleges provide the same quality of education offered by universities for the first two years at a lower cost which help students reduce debts toward getting their higher degree. However, compared to the number of students who started their first year in community colleges, a large percentage dropped out. This is common to both freshly graduated high school students and adults who came back to college to obtain a degree. Students drop out of colleges because of financial issues and the need to take remedial courses. As a result, they have self esteem issues and may remain poor.