High school drop out rates are being released nationwide according to a new formula mandated by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) education law. These rates may cause both taxpayers and parents to once again scratch their heads and ask the simple question: What is the cause to drop high school given all the billions of dollars that are continually poured into these public schools to ensure acceptable high school graduation rates?
In Indiana, for example, data now suggests that 1 out of 4 students on a statewide average drops out of high school. Within the next couple of months, every individual school district within the United States will release their own high school graduation rates.
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The NCLB calculation is lot more about common sense than many educators wish to admit to parents and taxpayers. Instead of figuring graduation rates from the beginning of the senior year to the end of the senior year, schools are being forced to report graduation rates based on those who entered as freshman and those who graduated as seniors. Recently, I have informally surveyed over 100 parents and 99 of them thought that this was how graduation rates were actually calculated. Given that schools receive on an average of ,000 per year from taxpayers' dollars for each student in the public school system for each year by not including those who left school before graduation skews both the effectiveness and efficiency of public education. Maybe that is why some superintendents feel that their response to this common sense approach is moral outrage about policing students instead of addressing the real reasons that schools are failing to graduate students.
If we take a results approach perspective of this data, we can honestly say that the public education system is producing one defective product out of four. With baby boomers retiring during the next decade, the U.S. economy will be facing critical shortages in finding qualified and educated workers. Unless, public education makes significant changes in how they educate young people, the U.S. is in meltdown and will lose its number one place in the world economy.
Not only will these drop out rates negatively affect the growing of the economy of each community, state and our nation, these undereducated young people will add costs to each state's bottom line. The Friedman Foundation based in Indianapolis estimated that the dropouts for 2006 will cost the state of Indiana over million each year until these students die. Given that life rates are increasing, Indiana taxpayers can expect at least 20 to 30 years or billions of wasted dollars being spent on these young people These costs are calculated from lost tax revenue, social health care such as Medicaid and incarceration.
Educational research suggests that most young people make the decision to drop out in middle school or junior high. Early kindergarten is not the answer as no matter how much education is available prior to these early adolescent years. Unless the young people are actively engaged in their learning, we will continue to see these unacceptable drop out rates.
The Gates Foundation in a report released earlier this year revealed that over 40% of the students dropped out because the classes were not interesting. Given that even many of the economically deprived have had exposure to computers and high technology, much of the instruction is still based upon the agrian school system that is still the foundation for the U.S. public education system. Also, another survey released by Civic Enterprises suggested that 90% of the drop outs had passing grades, but left again because classes were too boring. When reading more solutions to this problem, the answer is another curriculum based upon existing beliefs that have originated from an agrian economy. The truth is our country failed to restructure education when the industrial revolution happened and still employs a patch approach to fixing the problem. Hence, this is why true education reform has never existed in this country since the 1970's.
One of the best analogies to this problem is to imagine a small miniature horse pulling a cart. The small horse and cart have been covered in fiberglass to look like a modern, high performance vehicle. However, in spite of its high performance looks, it is still a one horse engine. This is what our educational system truly is. And the sooner, we as parents, business people, taxpayers, educational professionals and even students admit the real problem, the sooner we can begin to stop high school drop outs.
If we are committed to Einstein's definition of insanity that being doing the same thing over and over again hoping for different results, education will continue to deliver a negative return on the taxpayers' dollars. However, if we begin to construct a new belief system that is not based upon an agrian economy but one that is based upon a 21st century knowledge and technology economy, we may just begin to turn the tide and retain our high standards of living and our number one position in the global economy.
Stop High School Drop Out Rate By Addressing the Real Problems Instead of Traditional Symptoms
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