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By tbraun09 | Tuesday, April 14th, 2009
My 5 biggest reasons for why kids drop out of School in my district
I work with a 5th grader in Tigard, OR
1. Lack or complete absence of parental support/supervision.
2. Lack of Self-Esteem.
3. Learning disabilities (i.e. ADHD-Difficulty concentrating resulting in a lack of interest in classroom topics)
4. Insufficient community programs offering after school activities for both the body and mind.
5. Getting a job too early to earn money for themselves and/or their family.
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Why kids drop out
By ck-night | Monday, April 13th, 2009
The five biggest reasons why I think kids in my district are dropping out:
no interest in education
lack of parental support
lack of support from school officials
family issues, (neglect, abuse, drugs, pregnancy)
behavioral problems
(This is for grades 9 thru 12 in the Portland School District).
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what I’ve learned
By kcortez | Monday, April 13th, 2009
What I’ve Learned.
You have to be aware of so much in a classroom. How the students participate, attendance, family issues, being too hard or too easy, keeping expectations clear, etc. I find it unbearable the number of students that drop out when they are so close to completion. And yet I find it hard to understand that schools actuaklly push these students out for lack of participation and test scores. I recently witnessed this happening to a student. Because he was unmotivated and of legal age the school expelled him and left him with no hope of returning to school. He is from a military family and moved frequently.
I found it believable that poverty encourages drop outs and drop ous are likely to live in poverty.There is no big chance to make it with out education.
I learned that drop outs are likely to be:
-
unemployed
-
living in poverty
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in prison
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on death row
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on public assistance and
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single parents of drop outs.
The percentages we read about it makes it clear this is an epidemic and we need to become proactive in leading the fight against educational drop outs.
Katherine
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What I’ve Learned
By Danielle Miles | Sunday, April 12th, 2009
My Original List:
1. Significant difficulty at home
2. Lack of Parental support
3. Lack of strong connections/relationships with School staff (School support)
4. Disciplinary Problems (had been expelled, suspended, put on probation for attendance or grades)
5. Do not feel safe at School
Later I added:
6. Students feel they are too “behind” to catch up (homework, credits, many absences)
7. Working a significant number of hours at a job for income
8. Pregnancy
9. Substance Abuse and Addiction
For the most part, there was not much that surprised me as I have been working with youth who have been identified as being At Risk of dropping out. However, I found the following information while doing research for the first reflection:
“According to the Oregon Dept. of Education, the following are the top reasons students dropped out of school in Oregon during the 2005-2006 school year:
- 1,274 students said they felt too far behind to catch up.
- 794 lacked parental support.
- 696 cited working more than 15 hours a week.
- 645 quit because of a dysfunctional home life.
This information helped me to get an idea of the prevalence of each issue.
I have seen the effects of generational poverty first hand, and how difficult it is for children to break the cycle. They will not be capable of breaking out of poverty unless they are given resources that their parents often cannot give them. They will need to see the benefits of education, and learn certain skills for success at school that many other kids take for granted. Also, many parents of students in low income households do not have as much free time to read with their kids or help them with their homework, as they might work long hours or several low-paying jobs in order to provide for their families. I was pleased to see some of these issues addressed in this section.
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Who Drops Out?
By Danielle Miles | Sunday, April 12th, 2009
I found an article on KATU.com about the School District I have been working for, entitled “Is Reynolds High School really a Drop Out Factory?” (October 30th, 2007). I will paste some informative excerps:
“Reynolds High School in Troutdale is a “dropout factory,” according to a Johns Hopkins University study commissioned by the Associated Press. Dropout factory is the term used to describe schools where less than 60 percent of students continue into their senior year.”
“According to the Oregon Dept. of Education, the following are the top reasons students dropped out of school in Oregon during the 2005-2006 school year:
- 1,274 students said they felt too far behind to catch up.
- 794 lacked parental support.
- 696 cited working more than 15 hours a week.
- 645 quit because of a dysfunctional home life.”
I also found a summarized statement from Terry Kniesler, former Superintendent of the Reynolds School District, in Meeting Minutes of the School Efficiency and Quality Advisory Council at seacinfo.org. Kneisler described the problems facing the Reynolds School District in 2004.
Excerp:
“Terry Kneisler described the issues facing Reynolds School District…
• Rapidly changing demographics.
o Increasing poverty rates
o 55% of students receive free and reduced lunch program.
o 4% increase in free and reduced lunch program this school year; 18% increase
since 1999.
o Increasing challenges related to food, shelter, healthcare, and mobility due to
economic conditions.
o Increasing amount of staff time, particularly counselors, principals, health
assistants, and school secretaries connecting students and families to human
service providers.
o Human service providers are experiencing financial hardship at a time of
increasing demands. ”
I also found a statistic on schoolmatters.com that 56.9% of Reynolds students are “economically disadvantaged”.
It was fairly easy to find these statistics, but I was not able to find more current ones. I have heard the Vice Principal of Reynolds High School give updated statistics on our district demographics, which I cannot recall specifically. I was not surprised at these findings, as I have seen these demographics as I have been called in to work with students at several schools in our District.
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When does the problem start?
By Danielle Miles | Sunday, April 12th, 2009
Why Reynolds’ Students are Dropping Out
Original List:
(based upon my work with At-Risk Youth in the district)
1. Significant difficulty at home (Dysfunctional home life)
2. Lack of Parental support
3. Lack of strong connections/relationships with School staff (School support)
4. Disciplinary Problems (had been expelled, suspended, put on probation for attendance or grades)
5. Do not feel safe at School
Expanded List:
1. Significant difficulty at home. A dysfunctional home life can negatively affect a students’ ability to focus on school and make things like doing homework less of a priority to them.
2. Lack of Parental support. It is difficult for a teenager to find the intrinsic motivation to succeed in school if their parents are not interested in their success at school. If parents feel school is less important than other things, the student will likely not make school a high priority. Sometimes, parents will ask older students to stay home from school to watch younger siblings or to do other chores. These things will often cause the student to disengage from school.
2b. Few or no relatives have completed high school. As this course pointed out, the student may not see the benefits of a diploma or degree, or they may feel they are not personally capable of achieving one.
3. Lack of strong connections/relationships with School staff (School support). The Silent Epidemic stated that Students in large, urban, public schools are more likely to drop out. I have observed that one effect of large public schools are that the teachers and staff are not able to form many quality relationships with students, which often results in students feeling isolated rather than part of a community.
4. Disciplinary Problems (such as being expelled, suspended, put on probation for attendance or grades). Often, a very negative experience of school disciplinary action causes students to feel isolated, unsupported, and less engaged in their school and education.
5. Do not feel safe at School. Many students cannot succeed in school because they have experienced threatening or truly dangerous behavior around school.
6. Students feel they are too behind to be able to get caught up. This includes school work, credits, and attendance.
7. Working a part or full time job. Due to economic situations, many families cannot fully support their teenager financially and may even rely on them to bring in money for the rest of the family. This pressure may feel or be more of an urgent concern than finishing high school.
8. Pregnancy. Due to social expectations, many pregnant teens may not feel comfortable staying in school while pregnant. Additionally, the student may not know how to access Federally subsidized child care Programs in order to return to school after their child is born, or they may wish to stay home with their child while it is young.
9. Addiction. Addiction disrupts life dramatically, and many teenagers (as well as adults) will not be able to focus on school while they are abusing a substance or in recovery.
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School Climate-Reflection1
By Amanda Adkinson | Sunday, April 12th, 2009
Hold events and invite parents
have children invite parents to events
have an open door policy with parents so they know they are welcome at any time.
personally invite parents
set up resource area for parents, makes them feel welcome
In addition to my list, I also found the article, “Critical Issue”, to be very fitting for the job I currently have with Head Start, as a Family Worker. I hold monthly parent meetings and with 80 families in my caseload, building a relationship with each one of them is a challenge. It is very hard to engage families in evening type events and we even provide transportation, childcare and dinner…good dinner. 
. I offer guest speakers on topics parents are interested in and fun activities for families to do together. I send home 3 notices during the month. A save the date, a formal flier and then a reminder the day of. I have a parent committee which consists of 4 parents who call all 80 parents in our “pod” to encourage and remind them to come, although this is something new we have been doing, it has not seemed to change our outcome…..
….We have about 20 parents that come to our parents meetings. Some of those 20 consist of couples, so when you are talking about families, it is even less. (Now, this is taking into consideration parents who work odd hours and simply cannot come)With all my efforts, the attempts of other parents and the teachers reminding them on their monthly home visits, our outcome is still about 20 parents. I, of course think this is great and others at my job do too, because it can be so challenging to get parents involved. We are constantly talking about how to get more parents involved.
Now, the parents who are involved…are 100%. They come to the meetings on a consistent basis, participate in conversation and are very active in the classroom with their child. They help plan future meetings and also love to volunteer and help with special events. It is really amazing to see. It is not a “certain” type of parent that is involved either, they are all different and some of them are single fathers even. It is great to watching community building in action.
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Observation Form
By dmkelly | Sunday, April 12th, 2009
Observation Form
Absence:
Drugs:
Low Grades
Disciplinary Issues:
Parental support:
Health Issues
Curriculum vs. Interests
Socioeconomic Class
Extracurricular activities
Friends network:
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Dropout complexities and Positive Mirroring
By dmkelly | Sunday, April 12th, 2009
My original list showed that I wasn’t as comprehensive in understanding why students dropout. even though my list wasn’t as comprehensive, i was not surprised with all the reasons that students dropout.
the issue is complex. while some students dropout because they are held back, other students may need to be held back. a huge issue is socioeconomic, if both parents have to work and the school doesn’t receive proper funding or doesn’t focus on specific needs for each student then a student is already behind the eight ball.
some students have it all and still don’t finish high school. in the end, all students want to be believed in and support by someone. it’s a human need to find positive mirrors who can show him/her his worth which is there the day he is born.
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my experience with this blog
By dmkelly | Sunday, April 12th, 2009
the difficulty of creating a blog entry has created a hopeless situation for me until i had some help from my friends. the instruction was vague. i’ve felt the hopelessness of a student and the subsequent lack of motivation to do the blog. Still i don’t feel i’m entering onto a “discussion board” and am frustrated about it. i’ve been on the computer for a while trying to figure it out. should I dropout? i don’t think i will but frustration brings me there.
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