Our View: Dropout prevention should start early
Portland is right to reach out to recent dropouts, but for many it will be too late.
Every year Maine loses about 3,000 students who drop out before graduation. Many of them end up on the streets of Portland, where about a quarter of all high school students give up without a diploma.
When a student drops out of school he or she buys a ticket for a life of poverty. While there are always exceptions, a young person without a diploma can expect to earn $8,000 per year less year than a classmate who stuck it out and earned a diploma. And the divide gets wider the higher the level of education a student attains.
A college graduate earns about $30,000 per year more than a high school dropout. Someone with a post-graduate degree can be expected to earn $46,000 more per year.
This is not only a problem for dropouts. The whole community bears the burden that comes with this loss of potential. The Portland School Department deserves credit for looking for creative way to do something about it.
Portland is planning a one-day "amnesty" for students who dropped out of one of its three high schools this spring, arranging one-on-one interviews with staff aimed at getting these students back in school next fall.
The approach makes sense, because it is often an individual's family circumstances and financial needs that are the last factor that leads a student to quit school. A few minor adjustments on the school side might be enough to get a student back long enough to graduate.
This is an approach that makes sense, but school officials will admit that waiting until after students have already dropped out will be too late for most of them.
The time to intervene and make a real difference in the high school dropout rate is before the students get to high school. It may even be before they get to kindergarten.
Early childhood education and support for families that help young parents get their kids to school ready to learn will result in early success that is a foundation for the many stresses that affect children later, when they get to high school.
Aggressive outreach to students who have stopped going to school is important and worthwhile. But it will never have as much impact on this problem as early and sustained intervention designed to stop the dropouts from occurring in the first place.
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8 COMMENTS
RobertAT said...
Flexible, student-centered schools are the answer. The problem can't be approached as though it is inevitable.
March 9, 2010 at 7:38 AM Report abuse
trisailer said...
I always hear the numbers for more dollars that grads make, what about education for it's own sake. Life long learning is a stimulating and satisfying goal in itself. I am a 9th grade dropout who eventually went back because I beleved that I had the intelligence to succeed but needed the paper. The education system is too "one size fits all" I don't agree that everyone should go to college and there should be a break after high school for work or public service. Given the cost of education people should think twice about the benefit. Leaders are not produced by college.
March 9, 2010 at 8:06 AM Report abuse
trisailer said...
I think that it is comical that we have this huge, expensive education system that really only produces a small percentage of "educated" young people. The reason is that it is far too vanilla and the students who are successful are conformist. I'm grateful that I dropped out, because what I learned living on the street was far more valuable than what my peers learned in high school. The challange is to offer alternitives to students who are not dumb enough to want to sit in a boring classroom all day.
March 9, 2010 at 8:34 AM Report abuse
SL said...
Yea lets create high schools without any guidance to anything. lets let the students show up when they want and take as long as they need to graduate with no expectation of decorum or anything. You bunch of conformist losers, who want to make something of yourselves, can have your schools with boundaries! The reason why education is so expensive today is all of the drop outs that we cater to now. The special ed programs for kids that are pains in the butt and not in need of anything but some direction with measured goals! Leaders aren't produced by college???? No but the knowledge they gain by attending college is invaluable to be a good leader...unless you want to be a gang leader? People drop out by CHOICE. If you don't hold them acountable then why hand them a diploma? Standardize the expectations of a diploma and when they have reached it they get one...a GED is not a Diploma.
March 9, 2010 at 9:35 AM Report abuse
SL said...
Yea lets create high schools without any guidance to anything. lets let the students show up when they want and take as long as they need to graduate with no expectation of decorum or anything. You bunch of conformist fools, who want to make something of yourselves, can have your schools with boundaries! The reason why education is so expensive today is all of the drop outs that we cater to now. The special ed programs for kids that are pains in the butt and not in need of anything but some direction with measured goals! Leaders aren't produced by college???? No but the knowledge they gain by attending college is invaluable to be a good leader...unless you want to be a gang leader? People drop out by CHOICE. If you don't hold them acountable then why hand them a diploma? Standardize the expectations of a diploma and when they have reached it they get one...a GED is not a Diploma.
March 9, 2010 at 9:36 AM Report abuse
MandM said...
One reason that US education performs so poorly is that it is mandatory during teen years. A high proportion of the "students" sit in high school classes determined to be disruptive or non-participatory. Why not let them take their knocks early "on the street" and in dead end jobs but allow them back anytime, at any age, when they are ready and willing. Mandatory education destroys any potential for quality for those who want to be there. Teens are not all willing to be motivated by a stick. Public education should not be only for youngsters. It should be only for those who are willing to engage at any age they are willing to engage. Boot them out if they don't do their best, but let them come back any time they are ready and willing. Then the USA performance will begin to look like other countries as the best will not be held back by the "mandatory" seat time for those with no intention of meaningful participation.
March 9, 2010 at 12:59 PM Report abuse
AXeL said...
I agree. Start early by yanking your children OUT of public schools and giving them a good head start on their adult lives by placing them in a private school. You'd be surprised how affordable it really is, and aren't your own kids worth it?
March 9, 2010 at 3:33 PM Report abuse
trisailer said...
I home schooled my son 9th and 10th grades. He was way behind when we started but he caught up and passed his peers quickly. We used the state mandated test as the goal and he easily exceeded the requirements in half the time. Ironically I had to fight with his high school to get him placed back in 11th grade because they didn't want to accept his test scores because they were Florida. When he took the local one he did even better. The current education system is a joke
March 9, 2010 at 4:50 PM Report abuse