High School Drop Out Rates

High School Drop Out Rates Essay The nation's dropout crises have become severe over the past ten years. Big city high schools have less than 50% of freshmen graduate. (8) The problem has taken a back seat to a national focus on early childhood and elementary programs. Recent studies have found the dropout rate rising in large cities. Among minority groups, the dropout rate is the highest. The causes of the growing problem range from teen pregnancy to depression. The effect of the drop out rate is financially devastating on the individuals who dropout. Programs are being used to help decrease the tendencies for student to dropout.The national dropout rate has become common for teenagers. Dropout intervention programs have little effect from keeping teens from dropping out. According to the Boston herald website: But combating dropout rates requires new approaches since one group of researcher found that the 20 primary dropout prevention programs administered by the U. S. department o f education made little difference in keeping teens in school. The city' has gradually increase during the past four years, with roughly 900 student-mostly black and Hispanic- leaving the system each year. (1) This problem has been gradually increasing because schools have focused on basis math, literally skills and early childhood education for raising overall test scores. The dropout problem has been virtually forgotten. According to Jay Smink, Director of the National Dropout Prevention Center at Clemson University: â€Å"The sad part is, no one is seriously looking at the issue, and the sadder part is they're not putting the resources needed to improve the graduation rate,†(2) Largest Group of Drop-outs Hispanics are the largest group of dropout rates at 30-35%.This is 2. 5 times higher than the Africans-Americans dropout rate and 3. 5 % time the rate of whites. The study show the reason for the higher rate among Hispanics is poor teacher preparation, lower expectations, and overcrowded facilities. Another reason is a language barrier. Few teachers know enough Spanish to teach Hispanics. Other reasons are cultural related. Many Hispanic youth cite reasons for dropping out that are common to all youth who drop out. These reasons are they are failing, bored and/or having to work to support a family.Most Hispanics tend to believe that the public schools disrespect Hispanic culture, neglect the language problem, and set academic standards below the national norm. Poverty is wide spread among Hispanics. (6) Many children do not get an early start at school by attending pre-school; therefore, these children are at a disadvantage from the start. Their parents cannot read so these children miss being read to which is a necessary part of early development. In addition, peer pressure is an extremely strong influence on Hispanic youth. According to the Augusta Chronicle.