Dropping Out Of High School

In a society which is relying increasingly on education, graduating high school is quickly becoming an important accolade to ensure a student’s success in society. According to a study completed in July of 2011, high school dropouts cost between $320 billion and $350 billion annually in lost wages, taxable income, health, welfare and incarceration costs. (Zhao, 2011) As well as the financial impact, there are many other aspects that should be addressed when looking at high school dropout rates. The most prevalent example is the fact that systematically, the education system has shown significant signs of unbalance in the distribution of dropout rates across different races and or ethnicities. In 2009, 4.8 percent of of blacks and 5.8 percent of Hispanics between 15 and 24 dropped out of grades 10-12, compared with 2.4 percent for white students. (Zhao, 2011) With statistics like this, it is important that we not only ensure our education system is operating in a successful way, but also providing equal education and opportunities for students of all races, ethnicities, income levels, and religious backgrounds. By examining our education system, we as educators will be able to address and hopefully resolve the issues related to the unequal dropout rates in high schools across the nation.

I dropped out of high school my senior year. If you asked me what was going through my mind at the time I would have answered with a sarcastic response along the lines of, “I don’t plan to be alive past 25 anyway.” Here I am, at 28, alive and well. Looking backwards through time, I can easily pinpoint what moments and decisions in my life have become cemented as pivotal in my development. Dropping out of high school was one of those moments. I spent the entire senior year wasting time, and when it got towards May, I realized I had no chance of passing. I dropped out and did what you would imagine any high school drop out would do, I partied a lot. It set me down a path that I would later call my personal “Dark ages.” It was here that I found out that life is nothing like the movies and my career in high school did little to prepare to for this world. I earned my GED and would work jobs I wasn’t proud of just to make some cash. I wasn’t great at everything, but I discovered a passion of mine. I was accepted as a shift manager at a pop-up Toys R’ Us, and I was good at selling. I’d learn everything about every item in our store so I could answer any question at any moment. The key to a good sale, was investing, and investing into the person you are dealing with. If you are interested in the person, then you aren’t just handing off a product, but you are taking care of their need. I could outsell anyone in the store, on any occasion. So much so they kept me on past seasonal work

Students who dropout of high school before the age of 18 put their well-being at risk later on in life. According to BMC Public Health’s study focusing on over 3146 dropout students ranging in age from 20-29, “Poor mental health was present in 24% of the participants.” This emphasizes the fact that if teenagers drop out of high school they hurt their health because they go into a depressive state easier than their classmates who graduate. As a result of the depression, they go unemployed. This continues into a lack of anything to do and stress of unpayable bills. Finally, the data suggests that students should not be allowed to dropout without a diploma because when these students go into an unhealthy mental state, they can lose connection with their family or lead to worse situations making it even worse. Also in the radio interview, Missy Remiss, an education

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

“Dropping out of school does not seem to happen overnight; it comes after a long term process of frustration and failure” (Balfanz par 2). According to the National Center for Education Statistics, The population studied students attending Baltimore schools and gathered research that indicates how low test scores and report card grades as early as the 1st grade are reliable sources of whether students would later drop out(Alexander, Entwisle and Kabbani par.6). Also having to go through grade retention as early as kindergarten is also connected to why the dropout rate has reached a dynamic level (Kaufman and Bradby par.6). Whoever decides to drops out has no type of support, encouragement, or ambition starting at such a young age.

There are other factors associated with early school leaving. Researchers have focused on three different topics. First topic, student and family factors identified as contributing to dropouts is gender, racial, and ethnic minority status, low socioeconomic status, poor school performance, low self-esteem, delinquency, substance abuse, and pregnancy. In addition to this research has also gathered the impact of certain family characteristics, such as single-families,

Sociologists and psychologists have studied and documented high school dropout rate for many decades. Their focus has been put on statistics of different races/ethnicities, age groups and gender as well as underlying factors of why people drop out. Comparing the dropout statistics of different races is a common theme amongst many sociologists’ studies. The extent of their research addresses many significant aspects of high school drop out but fail to shed light on the differences within races between the two genders.

In life there are many struggles that interfere with a students education. In the 1970s, the United States had the world’s highest high school graduation rate. Today, we are ranked number twenty-one which shows a decrease in students that graduate. Lowering the dropout rate can solve several economic and social problems. Dropping out of high school has become a controversial topic that will continue for ages to come. Students should be required to stay in school until the age of eighteen because those without a high school diploma have higher unemployment and lower job satisfaction, have lower earnings, and have a higher likelihood of ending up in jail or on public assistance

"By the Numbers: Dropping Out of High School." PBS. WGBH Educational Foundation, 21 Sept. 2012. Web. 28 Mar. 2017.

To understand more about school dropout I continue to search for more articles in academic search premier, and then I ran into article written by Azzam, Amy M. The author states that, a “Divers youth, ages 16-25, who had failed to complete high school.” The author discovered that approximately “About one-third of all high school students in the United Sates fail to graduate” (91). Based on this article, the dropout rates vary among the races. The dropout rate among Black and Hispanic are fifty percent. She describes that the reasons for students dropping out from high school are including, “Students were bored, missed too many days, spent time with people who weren’t interested in school, had too much freedom, and not supervision.”

Dropping out of high school is associated with multiple factors that gradually build onto an individual. In the “Income Inequality, Social Mobility and the Decision to Drop Out of High School” study, Kearney and Levine discussed that the socioeconomic perspective of a person is one that plays a critical role in his/her perspective in continuing an education. Regions with a greater difference in income inequality often come with less social mobility. High school students’ choice to drop out is often linked with a long-term exposure to low socioeconomic circumstance that demotivated their prospect toward advancement and failure to recognize the benefits

The path to graduation can be long, unpredictable and quite confusing. This article “California Dropout Research Project” shows how the Los Angeles School District tried to explain what are the factors that come into to place that prevent certain student from graduating high school on time. Some of the factors are race, gender, and income. The chapter that mainly focuses on income indicates in order understand dropout crisis requires understanding the academic and

As a result, it is a challenge to provide appropriate services to them and their families. Dropping out of school, however, is only the end of the more general process of school disengagement, a process that typically begins earlier in the educational career. A strategy is needed to recognize early school disengagement and potential dropout (K. k. h. c. e. Henry, Knight, & Thornberry, 2012).

In recent times, there has been significant rise in high school dropout rates in United States of America. This issue has significant attention of academics and researchers and is known as "silent epidemic" as more and more American teenagers are dropping out from schools before graduation (Bridgeland, DeIulio& Morison, 200). Reports suggest that the high school dropout rates before graduation in minorities has reached 50 percent since last decade(Bridgeland, DeIulio& Morison, 202, Ferris & West, 69). The issue of dropout rates had been ignored for years and thus, in recent times, the graduation rate has decreased significantly at such an level that is has threaten the wellbeing and welfare of American society. The goal of this paper is to analyze the causes of high rates of high school dropouts in the lights of broad and diverse academic resources.

Did you know that 1.2 million high school students drop out of school every year just in the United States alone (11 Facts)? The decrease of high school graduation rates is a fairly important issue, and there are plenty of reasons to propose a change. According to the U.S. Department of Education, the current standard dropout rate of high school students is 7.4%. High school dropouts encounter way more difficulties and challenges than a high school graduate would. An average high school drop out lacks the basic education that one needs in order to be successful in life. They are more likely to face problems dealing with financial insecurity, communication skills, and of course, educational matters. With a high school diploma, one is more likely to get hired for a job, earn a higher income, and educate oneself even further. Some possible causes of high school students dropping out include stress, boredom, family problems, pregnancies, and drugs. With that said, with every issue, there is always a solution. By taking the problem at hand and looking at it from a broad perspective, we can thoroughly identify the source of the high dropout rates of U.S. high school students. There are countless factors that may be the cause of this epidemic, but a few ideas including making learning more relevant, limiting the workload given to students, and providing mandatory classes on drugs and safe sex may possibly be a solution to this