Dropouts
« Previous Entries Next Entries »IS IT TOO LATE? A call for answers
By Tobi Kibel Piatek | Tuesday, October 14th, 2008
As students in this course are exploring and considering the reasons why kids drop out, and how to recognize the signs - a question has been raised. IS IT TOO LATE to intervene once students start displaying signs that they are going to drop out?
What do you think? Please share your opinions based on your research and personal experience? Do you have a story about what worked? Experiences with failed efforts?
Simply click on comment below this post to add your thoughts, ideas and experiences with kids (and your own lives as well.)
Topics: Dropouts, How to Help | 10 Comments »
Dropout Rates in North Clackamas School District
By ajarthur | Monday, October 6th, 2008
The dropout rate of North Clackamas School District is 3.2% in 2007. In 1995 the dropout rate was at 6.39%. I found it on the website on the annual report. It was very general and I was unable to find any specifics about that drop out population. There was not information on how this reduction was obtained and if any specific programs were used. I believe that variables could effect this decrease like a change in boundaries or changing demographics but that information was not easily available.
My idea of who I thought was dropping out was fairly accurate and my perception has not changed much.
Topics: Drop Out Rate, Dropouts | No Comments »
My vision of a drop out
By aklettke | Thursday, October 2nd, 2008
When I close my eyes and envision an at-risk student I see a high school student that is not motivated or interested, not gender specific. When I was in high school students dropped out for so many reasons. We had a large population of Russian students, a few of my friends were Russian females who had to drop out of school because of their families, they were getting married. A few students dropped out because of drugs and the inability to keep up with class work, once they get too far behind they feel hopeless and the dreams of graduation fade away. Some students lacked motivation, this was the case for my little brother, he would get extremely high scores on his tests but did no work. When he would come home from school we would do homework and he always claimed that he didn’t have any. My mom met with his teachers and between them they all agreed that he was very bright but was also very lazy. No matter what my parents did at home he never was able to finish school. Finally it came to the point where he wasn’t passing any of his classes and he and my parents made the decision for him to drop out and get his GED. He moved to Anchorage with me last year, my fiance’ got him a job and I took him in to get his GED. He didn’t have to take any classes and he passed every test with 100% so it wasn’t that he wasn’t smart, or wasn’t getting it, he is really just a very unmotivated person who doesn’t know what he wants to do with his future.
Topics: Dropouts | 1 Comment »
PPS Info on School Movement
By Jeff Renfro | Friday, July 11th, 2008
If you click on this link, you will find the High Schools System Data pdf. It is a fascinating study of the movement of Portland high school students. The exodus from some schools is striking.
Topics: Dropouts | No Comments »
Reasons for dropping out
By faith | Wednesday, July 9th, 2008
Five top reasons students are dropping out
- School failure
- Lack of purpose, to see long term benefits
- Substance abuse
- Becoming a parent
- Poor attendance patterns
Topics: Dropouts | No Comments »
Long term effects of dropping out
By faith | Wednesday, July 9th, 2008
Once a student decides to drop out, they really don’t realize how that decision will radically affect not only their own life, but the life of so many for so many years to come. I do want to continue to be aware and then take it a step further with students that I work with that are at risk of dropping out. I can easily see them and know their struggles. I need to put them higher on my radar.
Topics: Dropouts | No Comments »
What about the third R – Relationships?
By Tobi Kibel Piatek | Monday, June 9th, 2008
June 9, 2008
In this morning’s Oregonian, the opinion column is titled, Putting our money where our kids are (reducing the dropout rate). Click here to read the entire column. The column is in response to an earlier editorial Putting schools on the spot
Both editorials contain advice and opinions about Oregon’s startling dropout rate (43% according to Portland Mayor-elect Sam Adams).
Today’s column, by Scott Eave, vice president for human resources at Gunderson Inc., cites “The Silent Epidemic,” a 2006 report for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, “which interviewed high school dropouts, (and found that) … more than 80 percent of the students surveyed indicated that teaching and curriculum needed to be improved to make school more relevant and engaging , and (that schools need to ) enhance the connection between school and work.” The author also points out that in 2005; the Portland school board adopted more rigorous graduation requirements with the goal of ensuring that students are better prepared for life and work after high school.
Rigor and relevance, clearly essential goals for our education system, but in my opinion, these columns, and so many other articles I read about our drop out epidemic, fail to address the third (and most important) R … relationships.
In the process of developing this course (ABOUT Making Connections), extensive research demonstrated that a significant part of students’ success is directly linked to having a one-on-one relationship with an adult who truly cares about what happens to them. And yet, so little is written about this essential element in the life of a kids at risk.
There is no question that kids need (deserve) opportunities to engage in experiences that demonstrate the relevance of what they are learning to their real lives. They also deserve to leave school with the skills and knowledge they will need for continuing their educations, and with the ability to find and fill jobs in the workplace. But, for so many of our kids at risk of dropping out, before rigor and relevance can shape their future, they need to feel comfortable, able to learn, welcome, and safe in our schools and classrooms. In other words, they need relationships.
Only when this need is met can they move on to the next steps on their ladders to success.
Tell Us: What do you think? Are relationships more important than rigor and relevance? What do you believe is the key to keeping kids in school? What works for your kids? What does not?
Click the No Comment button to add a your thoughts.
Topics: Dropouts, In The News | No Comments »
Dropout information
By Jenn Frederick | Thursday, April 17th, 2008
I’ll have to do a little research to find the drop out rates for my school and district, but what I know from professional development is that kids with poor attendance in their freshman year end up dropping out. It sounds like a “duh” statement, but I have a graph on my wall that depicts the curve very well. About 82% of kids who miss between 0 and 4 days a semseter will go on to graduate, but only 62% of kids who miss 5 - 9 days graduate. And these are predictions based on FRESHMAN attendance! I teach freshman, and I see how important it is to help them catch up when they’ve been absent, and make them feel welcome in the classroom after a long absence.
Topics: Dropouts | No Comments »
5 Biggest Reasons Students Drop Out
By Jenn Frederick | Thursday, April 17th, 2008
5 Biggest Reasons Students Drop Out
1. Falling behind in schoolwork, cannot catch up
2. Lack of parental involvement in life & acadmics
3. Drugs
4. Job
5. Become a parent
I teach 9th grade in Portland Public Schools.
Topics: Dropouts | No Comments »
Oregon Dropout Rate Climbs
By Tobi Kibel Piatek | Thursday, April 10th, 2008
This morning’s Oregonian headline reads Oregon Dropout Rate Climbs. The article states that 8338 students quit school last year before graduating. 8338 students! No matter how you look at that number, that’s a lot of drop outs. Taking this idea further – if 8338 dropped out, how many more are at risk of doing so in the near future?
So, what can we do about it? The Oregonian article did have some answers. If you are on this site, you probably have a major clue to at least one solution, but its nice to see that we have the right idea when we point out that the most important thing we can do to help keep kids in school is as simple as this - make connections, reach out, build relationships.
This clearly works at Century High School in Hillsboro. Century has an 80% Latino population, “the ethnic group with the highest dropout rate”, but this school’s drop out rate is only 1%! So how do they do it?
Primary among the things that adults at the school do is “monitor teens constantly and step in within days when a student skips school or shows other warning signs.” Administrators and counselors reach out to kids, ask how they can help, offer counseling about the future, find ways to settle conflicts. In other words – they form and maintain relationships with students.
They also reach out to families, offer help to depressed teens, provide reading help, and make it easy for students to catch up on credits.
To read this article, Oregon high school dropout rate increased in 2007
For the latest Oregon Graduation Rate by Group statistics (just what you need to know in Lesson One) click here
To read Portland schools among the worst with dropout rates.
Let’s start talking about this.
In your opinion, and based on your experiences, what do YOU think will help reduce the drop out rate in your school, program or district. Share your stories and your ideas.
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Topics: Dropouts, In The News | No Comments »
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