Why Students Drop Out Of School In The United States

Every year, 15 million students enter high school. Of those students, more than 1.3 million will drop out before graduation. This can be due to a number of factors: struggles in their home or personal life, disinterest in or misunderstanding the subject matter, an inability to complete the assignments, or a combination of these. On top of these students dropping out, 25% of students staying in school fail to graduate on time, if at all. Altogether, our education system is failing to educate and support 5 million high school students each year. Although completely preventing students from dropping out or failing may be unrealistic, we can reduce the number significantly. Three changes that we need to see in our school system are the removal of standardized tests, the addition of life skills courses, and the inclusion of mental health information and support. These modifications would

With the current fluctuations in the economy and instability in the job market, it has become extremely important to have a diploma from high school and a higher education. Despite the success associated with education, the country is being faced with high rates of college dropout. Dropping out of school results in social integration failure. This leads to subsequent diminishment of an individual’s chances of attaining personal success in fields that are legally accepted. The reduction and deterrence of this phenomenon are difficult to accomplish because of the high intricacy of its causes. A just identification and exploration of the factors causing college students to drop out would be helpful in revealing the necessary course of action to assume and result in a diminution and prevention of cases of college dropout. Many college students drop out of school because of economic needs, poor academic performances, and lack of advising.

A major subject that has been brought up by students, parents, reporters etc. is the phenomenon of high student dropout rates in U.S. colleges. Many students over the last few years have changed their majors, and eventually dropped their education in college and went out to find jobs, but we have to consider the causes that led them to do something like that. On the other hand, there are people who that think that this phenomenon is not as a great deal as people make it and that the dropout rates in U.S. colleges is not that high. In order to get a better understanding of this subject, I have found three sources that can prove that the phenomenon of high student dropout rates in U.S. colleges is a true issue and the causes, which are three main things: anxiety, student debts and financial success.

Even though school completion rates have continually grown during much of the past 100 years, dropping out of school persists as a problem that interferes with educational system efficiency and the most straightforward and satisfying route to individual educational goals for young people.(Doll, Eslami, and Walters (2013) pg 185 ) .

One of the number one reasons why students drop out of college is because of the financial struggles with college tuition. Without a big scholarship, college tuition costs can be a very scary thing to students. Some students do not even try to get into college because they know they cannot afford it. In order to pay for college students would have to work a full time job while attending school. Doing so is a very hard and stressful task to accomplish. Three of the main cons of providing free college tuition include rising taxes, student taking advantage of the opportunity, and the cost of expanding colleges including the demands for professors. Pros includes an opportunity for everyone and graduating from college debt free. Although an alternative to free tuition may mean a dramatic rise in taxes, our economy will benefit in the long run due to students coming out of college debt free, as well as more knowledge in specific career fields.

In the education system today, competition for scholarships and acceptance into college is increasingly competitive. In order to access to these advantageous opportunities, students in high school work diligently in order to maintain high grades. As a consequence, distractions, and even worse, falling behind, can be disastrous. Many of these said distractions however, are fellow students themselves. Just as many students strive for excellence, others barely pass for mediocracy, and they drag diligent students down in their apathy of school. In order to remove these distractions, it could be suggested that by lowering the high school dropout age, it would benefit studious students by removing those who don’t wish to be attending school.

I received my education in a public school in Nevada, which has one of the highest dropout rates in the country, and all throughout my senior year I witnessed countless numbers of my peers’ willingly leaving high school to “Pursue their lives.” At the beginning of the year, everyone was gun hoe about finishing school but as the year progressed students were not attending school or not doing assignments thus they were automatically failing classes they needed by default (missing class to often is grounds for automatic failure) or for receiving a failing grade. It’s such a confusing set of emotions to experience when you hear someone has dropped out: it is a combination of pity, sorrow, helplessness and at the same time relief. Everyone wants to graduate from high school at one point in

People tend to have either very strong opinions on the educational system, or none at all. The opinionated ones, however, can talk for days about the drawbacks of the Common Core, or standardized testing. But many of them seem to be overlooking one of the largest problems that seems to infiltrate even the best of schools: the complete lack of passion in many high school students. For many, “I hate school” has become more than an overplayed cliche for TV teens to groan upon the prospect of having to do work; it’s become their entire opinion on education. Students are tearing their hair out because they are trying their best, but still not achieving, and others, having resigned themselves to misery and mediocrity, are just giving up all together. Parents look on helplessly as the bad report cards pile up, unable to decide if their kid is lazy or just plain dumb. But, more often times than not, the answer is neither. It is not the child who is failing, but the school system. While the approach to education is constantly evolving, and has made great strides over the past decades, the detrimental effects of prejudice and the lack of individualized education are still taking their toll; that is not to say, however, that they cannot be fixed through necessitating psychological screenings of teachers and reducing class sizes.

The high school students who decide to drop out of school are the primary stakeholders of increasing the high school retention rate. Due to the negative consequences that occur once a student drops out of high school, such as unemployment and an increased chance of going to prison, these students are the individuals most affected by this issue. There are many values and interests that high school students have that could affect their decision to drop out.

1.1 million American students drop out of school every year (TBF, 2012). After World War II, the United States had the #1 high school graduation rate in the world. Today, we have dropped to # 22 among 27 industrialized nations (TBF, 2012). These astronomically large numbers are why I chose this topic. Public schooling is in crisis, and more and more people are opting to go to private schools or be homeschooled. Even through all of this, there are many glimpses of hope. Many public schools are still very good, and competitive towards private schools. On the flip side, other public schools, namely in big cities, are also colossally behind the suburban schools that are competitively good. Luckily, I live in Penfield, where we have one of the suburban schools, but what if I didn’t? That’s the reason I choose this topic (I have a bit of a habit of overanalyzing things, so the “what-if” factor really intrigued me). With that out of the way, here is one of the most important decisions I will ever make: what I will do about education.

Dropping out of school has been called a silent epidemic (Bridgeland, DiIulio, & Morison, 2006), a crisis (Rumberger & Lim, 2008), and a challenge (Steinberg, Johnson, & Pennington, 2006). In 2007, approximately 6.2 million people between the ages of 16 and 24 years old were high school dropouts. “Among these dropouts, 60.1% were men, 18.8% were Black, and 30.1% were Hispanic” (Center for Labor Market Studies, 2009, p. 2). Dropping out is costly not only to the student but also to society as well (Lessard et al., 2008). In comparison to students who graduate from high school, dropouts are more likely to have higher rates of unemployment. For example, in October 2005 high school dropouts had an estimated unemployment rate of 32.9% whereas high school graduates not attending college had a rate of 20.6% and graduates who were attending college had a rate of 8.4% (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2006). If a dropout does obtain employment, it is estimated that they will have lower earnings than graduates. For example, the U.S. Census Bureau (2006) estimated that high school dropouts have an average annual income of $17,299 while high school graduates and those who have obtained their equivalency earn an average of $26,933 annually (as cited in Alliance for Excellent Education, n.d.). Additionally, dropouts are more likely than their counterparts to have poorer health and higher rates of mortality. “On average, a high school graduate lives nine years longer than a dropout and

Every year, over 1.2 million students drop out of high school in the United States alone. That’s a student every 26 seconds – or 7,000 a day (Miller 1). Young people drop out of school all the time for different reasons personal to their circumstances. I experienced the feeling of wanting to drop out of school, but fortunately had a strong enough desire to obtain my diploma. There are many like me who were not so fortunate. To some students, school seems like a waste of time, they look at it like it is essentially a babysitting gig to keep teenagers occupied. Students who are drug addicted, or those who are afflicted with mental illness or have developed criminal behavior, find it

Today’s Government has produced a focus on education with its importance for one to be successful through passing laws, having numerous debates, and speaking out on the crucial subject. Throughout these actions, a number of responses have poured out from all regions across the nation. Dropping out is a way to escape a place associating social outcast, jocks and nerds together to form a student body that sometimes will oppress one another. Every twenty-six seconds a graduating class decreases by one, creating an average graduation rate of 80%. The effects of this create problems that harm people both economically and socially. Over a lifetime one who does not graduate high school earns $200,000 less than a person would if they did go on to get their diploma, including not having a chance of obtaining the 90% of jobs that are now made unavailable for the dropout. Socially, nearly 75% of dropouts are connected to crimes in the United States while 30% of girls blame pregnancy as the cause of their leaving of education. Overall this is a cause that if fixed can solve many problems through law and economics that will produce a stronger government base. The continuous rate of high school dropouts brings a negative impact through social, economical, and mental problems that creates a downfall in the landscape of society.

Education is one of the most important things an individual can have, but every year 1.2 million students drop out of high school in the United States. This problem raises many concerns since education is important. Dropouts are frowned upon due to people not understanding why they drop out of school. Many circumstances can lead to an individual feeling the need to drop out, and in their case, it might be what is best for them depending on the situation they are in.

Failure to complete high school is not a singular act but a compilation of feeling disengaged from school and personal experiences that have been building for years. There is a voice and a story behind every students’ choice to leave high school before completion. It is vital for parents, educators and policymakers to listen to their stories so they can possibly use their experiences to find early indicators of future students contemplating dropping out. There are many reasons why a student decides to dropout. A student in the 9th or 10th grade may have a different reason why dropping out is their only option than a student in the 11th or 12th grade. Educators and policymakers have been implementing programs throughout the years to tackle the issue of increasing dropout rates in high school.