Dropping Out

Last week I attended the Alabama Governor's Dropout Prevention Summit in Montgomery, Alabama. As a part of the Summit, five high school students from across the state spoke about the issue from a youth perspective. The students had extremely diverse backgrounds from illiterate parents to single parents. Also, each had experienced a different level of success in school, including one student who had dropped out for one year and then returned and one student who was president of his student council. The one thing each of them had in common was a caring adult in their lives. 

Parents often get the blame for kids who do poorly in school. Even at the Summit some of the recommendations discussed were encouraging parents to have high expectations for their children. Actually, I haven't met any parents who don't want their children to be successful in life. Many of us are already thinking about what quality of nursing home our children will be able to afford! What parents really need are strategies they can use to help their children understand the value of education. Instead of giving them platitudes about expectations we should be telling them what to do if their child is in danger of dropping out.

Here are some specific strategies families can use:

• Arrange for help with making up missed work, tutoring, placement in a special program, and/or transfer to another school;
  
• Help with personal problems and/or arrange for professional help;
  
• Help them schedule work and family obligations so they have time for school;
  
• Help them understand the choices they make (such as having children, marrying, failing courses, and behaving badly enough to be suspended or expelled) can disrupt their ability to finish school;
  
• If students become pregnant or parents, help them to find school and social programs to meet their special needs; and 
  
• If all else fails, help them to find a GED program and encourage them to stay with it until they get an alternative high school diploma.
  

Strategies were provided by Digest No. 109 and Digest No. 108 published by the ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education: School Dropouts: New Information about an Old Problem, by Wendy Schwartz; and The Impact of Vocational Education on Racial and Ethnic Minorities by Francisco Rivera-Batiz.