Tackling school dropouts
In my story today, I take a look at dropouts – and, more specifically, dropout prevention and intervention – the focus of a day-long summit at Randallstown High School yesterday. Hundreds of state educators, believed to represent all 24 school systems, attended the event, said to be a first for Maryland. It was sponsored by America’s Promise Alliance, an organization tied to former Secretary of State Colin Powell and his wife and current chair, Alma.
One of the noteworthy moments during the summit involved a theatrical performance put on by a troupe from Garrett County, who portrayed seven characters – six students and a parent – explaining why they chose to drop out. The writer of the play, called The Goodbye Kids, explained to the audience that the concept emerged from more than 20 interviews she did with dropouts. The characters were composites of what she gleaned from those talks, she said.
The characters, all students at “Run of the Mill High School,” ranged from a boy who bellowed about how much his teachers bored him to a girl whose family never set a high priority on finishing school to a poor student who was sick of being mocked for his appearance – and stench. Other highlights included a student who’d always gotten by – until that one teacher noticed his inability to read – and the mother of another who had been regularly mocked for being gay.
Interestingly, the profiles foreshadowed a later presentation from Robert Balfanz, director of the Everyone Graduates Center at the Johns Hopkins University.
According to Balfanz, there are four main types of dropouts:
- life events (pregnancy, work, etc.)
- fade-outs, who just stop seeing a reason for being in school
- push outs, who get a "gentle push out the door" because they've long been troublemakers
- those failing in school/ schools and community failing to enable them to succeed
The latter group is the biggest among the thousands of students in every graduating class who need help, Balfanz said.
During the summit’s afternoon session, individual school districts met to begin discussing how to address their specific challenges and needs in combating the dropout issue. It was interesting to listen in on the discussions that emerged yesterday as school officials and community stakeholders – representatives from MSTA, PTA and local agencies – exchanged ideas on how to tackle this problem. Each district is to have an action team that develops a dropout prevention plan for the 2009-2010 school year.
And now I turn it over to you…what’s been your experience with regard to dropouts in your school system? There was some discussion of just how angry the theater troupe profiles were, some downright venomous when it came to describing their teachers; what have you seen among your own students? And what needs to happen to help these students stay and finish school?
Finally…what do you think of the state’s goal to have every high school in Maryland report a dropout rate of 3 percent or less for all students in all subgroups?
Categories: Around the Nation, Around the Region, Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Howard County, NCLB
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