Review of New High School Graduation Report

Only about half of all students served by the main school systems in the nation's 50 largest cities graduate from high school. That's according to a new report from America's Promise Alliance: Cities in Crisis: A Special Analytic Report on High School Graduation (  PDF, 16pp.).

In addition, the report says that graduation rates in urban schools are lower than those in nearby suburban communities, in some instances by more than 35 percentage points. 

The report analyzes school district data from the U.S. Department of Education's Common Core of Data (2003-04). The country's 50 largest cities were identified based on 2006 population data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Cities in Crisis was prepared for the America's Promise Alliance by Editorial Projects in Education Research Center.

Review of Report

By Richard R. Verdugo, NEA Human and Civil Rights

Cities in Crisis uses a new measure of graduation and applies it to the U.S. Department of Education's Common Core of Data, limiting the analysis to school districts in the nation's 50 largest cities. The findings are not unexpected - using their measure, the author finds that graduation rates are exceedingly low. Graduation rates range from a high of 77.1 percent in Mesa, Arizona, to a low of 24.9 percent in Detroit, Michigan. Overall, the average graduation rate for these districts is 51.8 percent.

While the report is a valuable addition to what we know about high school graduation, three issues need to be raised:

1. Interpreting these and related findings as dropout rates.  One cannot subtract the graduation rate from 100 percent and suggest that the result is a dropout rate, because it leads to erroneous conclusions. For example, the calculation does not take into account that some students take five or even six years to graduate. 

2. The measure used in the report. The Cumulative Promotion Index (CPI) uses aggregate data and does not track individual students over their high school career. Thus, some error is introduced into the calculations (one source of errors occurs when students move and enroll in a school in another city or state). The point is that increases or declines in the aggregate number of students is not accounted for by the formula.

3. The cities in which data were used for this report. In many cities the Promotion Index was quite low, suggesting a major problem in the educational processes in those cities. It should be pointed out, however, that these cities face many problems that affect schooling, such as high crime, poverty, and unemployment rates, and high proportions of single heads of families. For instance, children in poverty data from the Annie E. Casey Foundation show that in 2006 the percentage of children in poverty was 18 percent in the United States, 18 percent in the state of Michigan, and 44 percent in Detroit. Researchers and policymakers need to be sensitive to the entire environment surrounding students and their education.

While the report brings to the forefront an important set of findings, one needs to be careful in how the findings are interpreted and used for driving policy.

About the Reviewer
Richard Verdugo is a senior research scientist at the National Education Association. Verdugo earned a doctorate in sociology from the University of Southern California, where he focused his studies on racial stratification, the sociology of education, the sociology of labor markets, and statistics/methods.

America's Promise Alliance is an NEA partner in addressing the dropout problem.

Stay in School

By Mercedez, high school student, Huntsville, Alabama

I wanted to drop out so bad. I was disappointing everyone. I decided to do it for my mom.

I also realized that I can't make it really without graduating from high school. I don't want to have to be struggling.

So I tell people now to stay in school and don't do it for anybody else. Do it for yourself and your future.

Practical Guide ProposesThree Steps

If you are ready to tackle - and end - the high school dropout crisis in your community, you need to take three steps, writes Robert Balfanz at the Center for Social Organization of Schools, Johns Hopkins University.

In a short, practical guide, What Your Community Can Do To End Its Drop-Out Crisis: Learnings from Research and Practice (May 2007), Balfanz provides twenty questions that will help you:

1. Understand your community's dropout crisis and the resources it is currently devoting to ending it

2. Develop  a strategic dropout prevention, intervention, and recovery plan that focuses community resources, efforts, and reforms at key points when students fall off the path to high school graduation

3. Gather the human and financial resources need for a comprehensive and sustained campaign, and develop the evaluation, accountability, and continuous improvement mechanisms to maintain it.

Read What Your Community Can Do To End Its Drop-Out Crisis (PDF, 29 pp.) at the Graduation Gap Web area of the Center for Social Organization of Schools Web site.   

What Are We Doing About It?

In 2004, 10.3 percent of all 16- to 24-year-old Americans left school without any kind of a high school completion credential. Who are these students? Some of them never reached high school. Some of them were born outside the United States and may have dropped out of school in another country. The reasons why they left school vary, but here is a breakdown by gender and ethnicity:

Male: 11.6 percent
Female: 9.0 percent
White: 6.8 percent
African American: 11.8 percent
Hispanic: 23.8 percent

Source: Dropout Rates in the United States: 2004. Laird, J., DeBell, M., & Chapman, C. National Center for Education Statistics, 2006.  

What is NEA doing about it?
To address the problem on the national level, NEA created an action plan based on promising practices and a range of experience and data. Read

• NEA's Position on Dropout Prevention and making high school graduation a priority
  
  
• NEA's 12-Point Action Plan to find solutions based on experience and best practices

What are others doing about it?
Read these three articles on what teachers and schools are doing to keep students in school:

• "I Don't Need to Graduate" - about in-school tutoring that paid off
  
  
• Adapting the School Setting - about a teacher who opened her homeroom to a student.
  
  
• We Provided Alternative Schooling - about a teacher working with a student who may not return.

What do you think?

Share Your Story

Join a Dropout Prevention Discussion

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Report on the Dropout Crisis for Girls

A report from the National Women's Law Center (2007) provides a look at the dropout crisis for girls.

When Girls Don't Graduate, We All Fail  finds that girls, and especially female students of color, are dropping out of high school at dangerously high rates. The report further finds that the economic consequences of dropping out are particularly steep for women, who face especially poor employment prospects, low earnings potential, poor health status, and the need to rely on public support programs. The report demonstrates that the high school dropout problem is a problem for boys – and girls.

The report identifies some of the barriers leading to, and the risk factors for, dropping out that are of particular importance to girls. And it offers these recommendations for reducing girls' dropout rates: 

• Increasing research on gender-based differentials and designing targeted interventions based on that research
  
  
• Improving data collection
  
  
• Increasing school accountability for dropouts
  
  
• Providing additional support for pregnant and parenting students
  
  
• Ensuring girls have equal access to career and technical education training for high-skill, high-wage jobs and after-school programs, including athletics
  
  
• Protecting students from sexual harassment and bullying
  
  
• Ensuring that students know how to report sex discrimination.

Many of these recommendations will help boys as well.

A Webinar on this topic - When Girls Don't Graduate, We All Fail: Strategies to Help Girls Stay in School - will take place on Wednesday, November 28, 2007, at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

Register now for this online event. 

By Bill Betzen, middle school computer applications teacher, Dallas, Texas

All of our students know that by the end of 8th grade, they will write letters to themselves documenting their lives and their plans for the future and they will place that letter in the Achievement & Goals Archive -- a 350-pound vault, bolted to the floor in the lobby of our Dallas inner-city middle school.

After they've written the letters, students pose for a photo with their Language Arts class in front of the vault, holding the self-addressed envelope with their letter sealed inside. Then, they each place their letter on the shelf for their class, one of ten shelves inside the vault.

Each student gets a copy of the class photo, with a description of the Archive Project on the back and the date by which they'll receive details for their ten-year class reunion. At that reunion, they will retrieve their letter from the vault.

Students know they will also be invited at their reunion to speak with the then-current 8th grade class. They'll give these students their recommendations for success and they'll answer questions such as: "Would you do anything differently if you were thirteen again?"

When we started this archive activity three years ago, we wanted to help students focus on their own futures, to have goals to work toward. We've found that this focus is now helping our students take their studies more seriously (see the May 2007 survey of 400 students). And more of them are planning to complete high school and continue their studies after high school. The Archive Project and reunion plans seem to give students more of a sense of belonging. That alone lessens the attraction of gangs, whose members seldom graduate from school.

Starting a Middle School Archive Project is simple. All it takes is a supportive middle school principal and one language arts and/or history teacher interested in running the project. It is a history-writing project that students love. After all, it's their own history! It is very easy to get the hardware for the Archive Project donated by your local hardware store. This is a project students will remember.

Related Content

» Students Getting Safe Place to Store Dreams - Article shows the popularity of the Archive Project with students. From the Dallas Morning News (May 26, 2007).

By Sylvia Perez, high school student, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Back in 2004, I made the dumbest decision, which was not to attend high school anymore and drop out. I was 18 and had my one-year-old son. I didn't realize how important it was to have a high school education until I got older and wanted to better my financial situation and started applying for jobs. I couldn't find a job because I was lacking that diploma.

Recently, I decided to go back to school. I only had to take two classes and it was only for a month. Now I'll be able to say I am a graduate. I am 21 years old and I will be graduating next year in the class of 2008. I did it not only for me but mainly for my son, who I want to teach that staying in school is the best thing to do. It took me three years, but I finally did it.

You're never to old to accomplish your goals.

By Diana Bell, parent, Denver, Colorado  

My son just turned 17 years old and he will be starting Colorado School of Mines this fall. But we have struggled with him and school. When he was 13 years old, we thought he would never have a GPA strong enough to be admitted to any college in the country. We knew he was bright, but what to do was the question. After he failed eighth grade, we moved him out of school and enrolled him in the community college where he took college-level classes that he tested into. His first and second semesters were great. We moved him to a four-year college, but he was dropped after his first semester because he didn't have a high school diploma.  

He has had struggles and failures and successes, but we've all hung in there through it all. He recently finished a semester at Colorado University at Boulder and we were able to get him high school credit for his college classes. He currently has a job as a junior admin at a company at the Denver Tech Center. He really enjoys the money he is making, but fortunately he understands that college is his priority—he moves on to campus in a few weeks at Colorado School of Mines, leaving his job behind.

As much of a struggle as it has been, he has learned in the midst of it all—even in the classes he failed—and he has matured in so many ways. For him, it took a nontraditional path to make it through school. Now, he is looking forward to making his own choices with classes and planning his life. It's been a very hard road and costly, but we just couldn't let him down.

Latest in NCES Series (June 2007)

A new report, "Dropout Rates in the United States: 2005," builds upon a series of National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reports on high school dropout and completion rates that began in 1988. It presents estimates of rates for 2005, and provides data about trends in dropout and completion rates over the last three decades (1972-2005), including characteristics of dropouts and completers in these years. Among other findings, the report shows that in students living in low-income families were approximately six times more likely to drop out of high school between 2004 and 2005 than of their peers from high-income families.

Browse this report on the NCES Web site or 

Download, view, and print the publication (PDF, 73pp).

But It's Hard Being a Mother

By Jenissa M., high school student, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

I am 16 years old and I dropped out of 9th grade. I have a 6 ½-month-old daughter and I have another one on the way. I want to go back to school because I feel like a loser and a nobody. It's hard being a mother and wanting to go to school. My daughter's father is always working and cannot watch her so it's hard for me. I feel like a housewife that has to cook and clean instead of get an education. I am a very smart person, but I made all of the wrong choices and I regret dropping out! I wish I could go back!

Eye-Opening Report From EdWeek

The 2nd annual Diplomas Count is here. And now through June 25, 2007,  EdWeek is offering free access to it online.

Diplomas Count examines college and career readiness and provides an analysis of high school graduation policies and trends. The report was produced with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Here are some features of the report:

• Executive Summary
  
  
• What It Takes To Graduate for the Class of 2007
  
  
• 'Soft Skills' in Big Demand (interpersonal skills needed for success in life)
  
  
• Learning and Earning 
  
  
• Edweek Maps Tool (graduation rates by school district)  

Making It Out of the 'Hood

By Angela P., high school student, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

My name is Angela and I go to William Penn High School. I am not a dropout.  I have gone to school every day, even times that I did not want to go. Most of my friends that I grew up with dropped out of school because they knew they were becoming a teen mother at the time.

I could not be around people that don't want to go to school. One day I got this phone call from one of my friends and she told me that she was going back to school because she hated to see me go to school to make it out of the hood, and she said that she was going back to school to make a better life for her and her baby.

In school, you have to go through a lot with people and teachers. Not all teachers are going to like you, but you have to show them that you can make it. I had a teacher that told me that I was not going to make it, but I did. I’m in the 11th grade and still trying to make it.

So don't be a dropout. Show people that you can make it. Be a drop IN.

Teacher Provides More Than Academics

By Wendy Rice, high school teacher, Ferndale, Washington

Wendy Rice in her classroom.

Jenna was 14 years old when she came to the alternative school where I taught. After two short months, she dropped out of school and ran away to live on the streets of Seattle. For some reason, she continued to call and tell me she was OK. I, in turn, informed her parents.

One day, her parents and I met Jenna at a restaurant in a rough part of Seattle. This lovely girl had turned into a urine-smelling junky. Her parents kidnapped her that day and took her to a treatment facility in another state. After a series of halfway houses and other treatments, she returned to high school and graduated. She also went on to finish a bachelor’s degree from an alternative college.

Today, she is clean and sober, married and living in Oregon, where she works in the art community. That was 11 years ago, my first year teaching alternative education. Since then, countless others have sat in my classroom, each seeking more than an education. Most have wanted someone simply to listen to them.

The days of sending a troubled child to talk with their counselor are over. Today, it is the responsibility of every adult in the lives of young people to stop, look, and listen. If we don’t, we will continue to lose our children to poverty, abuse, and as dropouts.

If each teacher, paraeducator, bus driver, food service worker, and secretary listened to one child who appears to be struggling, it could change lives.

Helping Students Who Repeatedly Miss School

The Palm Springs Unified School District (CA) is using community aides to reach out to families of students who repeatedly do not come to school. Teams, working in shifts from 6:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., make as many as 6 to 10 home visits daily. Their goals are to help students and families increase their focus on school attendance and involvement and to help them resolve whatever issues are keeping the kids from attending school. The program, put together by Jane Mills, director of child welfare and attendance, is currently being evaluated.

Build on Their Passions

By Paul Rayius, middle school band director, Seminole, Florida

I'll start with the happy ending: One of my students, Ian, was recognized as the 2005–06 "Turn Around Student of the Year" at Osceola Middle School, where I teach band. The award is given each year to one student who has shown remarkable improvement academically, intellectually, and socially.

Ian was never a problem in my band class, but in sixth and seventh grades, he was having a tough time in his other classes. I went to bat for Ian when they wanted to pull him out of band for extra help in his "academic" classes. He is so dedicated to music that he agreed to switch instruments so he could take Beginning Percussion during the one period it would fit into his schedule.

When it came Ian's turn to be recognized at the awards breakfast, our assistant principal acknowledged that through those rough couple of years, often the only reason that Ian even came to school was to attend band class. She concluded with some of the good things that he accomplished in his eighth-grade year. This is the kind of feedback no performance assessment can provide. Now, Ian is halfway through his freshman year, in the marching band, and doing quite well in school.

Find Out What They Need

By Denise Arrigo, Millville Senior High School, Millville, New Jersey

Several years ago, I taught a senior who missed several consecutive days of school. Julio was in good standing and only months away from walking the stage. So, I called him at home. He explained that he was tired of his hour-long bus commute. He wanted to work and buy a car. I talked to his mom. She said Julio was set to be the first in his family to finish high school.

Julio had used up his unexcused absences and was told in a letter that he was being dropped from the roll. I spoke with the assistant principal and arranged a conference. At the meeting, Julio agreed not to miss any more school days. He successfully completed his schoolwork, and his mom and I shared a big hug on the night of his graduation.

Gained a New Family Member

By Movita Utt, St. Paul School, Cana, Virginia

One night in 2004 my son came home from a date very upset. The high school senior he had been out with, a good student all through her school career, had just informed him that she had been withdrawn as a result of numerous absences.

I learned that her mother was terribly ill, and each day the young lady wrestled with the decision of leaving her at home alone. When my son shared this story and told me how upset the young girl was not to graduate in the spring, my heart was broken. During my 23-year teaching career, I had taught this girl and five of her six brothers. 

The next day I called the attendance officer at home and talked with him for nearly an hour. We convinced him that she should be given another chance. The conditions were as follows: she could not miss so much as one hour of school the remainder of the year, she would have to attend summer session to make up all the days she had missed, and I had to commit to seeing that she would be in school each day.

I knew we needed to make some changes in her home life. I met with the girl’s uncle and aunt and they agreed to let her stay with them and see that she got on the bus each morning. I had a temporary custody agreement drawn up and took it to the young girl’s mother. She wept as I explained that her only daughter was trying to graduate and keep alive her hopes of going to college. The mother, knowing that this was the best thing, reluctantly signed the papers.

Today, still driving that same used car that my husband and I co-signed for her to buy, the young woman is a certified pharmacy technician and is on the waiting list for nursing school at a local community college. Best of all, the girl that was once labeled a dropout became my daughter-in-law last fall. 

Teacher Capitalizes on Their Enthusiasm

By Steve Schuld, high school tech ed instructor, Sioux Falls, South Dakota

I see students who have a hard time with core classes, but come alive in my hands-on automotive class. These kids are filled with energy when they can work with their hands. One commented, "I only came to school today because we have lab. Otherwise I would have stayed in bed."

The kids work hard in my class, and I try to encourage them to work just as hard in their core classes. I just nudge them and say, "If you can understand automotive technology, then you can use that smart brain of yours to work through those other classes for me."

Sometimes students will get pulled from my classroom because they are failing a core class. This hurts. It seems that something they enjoyed, like learning engine mechanics, has been taken from them. So they come to hate school.

When this happens, I go to bat for the student. I arrange a sit-down with counselors, students, and parents, to devise a plan that leads to the student graduating.

Students involved in sports, band, the arts, and after-school clubs develop feelings of accomplishment in school. The kids in my auto and welding classes are no different. As educators, we need to see where student interests lie, and then cultivate that interest so their enthusiasm will spread to the rest of their academics.

Dropouts are silent, so we need to be looking out for them.  

Find Out Why They Don't Return

By Emily Mann, high school special education teacher, Elmhurst, New York

Ten years ago I was a special education teacher and advisor in New York City's Newtown High School, responsible for identifying "long-term absentees." One of them was Miguel, a motivated 11th-grader who had disappeared after calling to report that a fire had ravaged his mother’s apartment. He remained on the long-term absentee list for almost a year.

Eventually, I located him. He had gone to work full-time to support himself and help his mother. Miguel wanted desperately to return to school and graduate, but he thought he was too old. He had no idea that students can attend public school through age 21. After we spoke, Miguel returned to high school the following week. Nearly two years behind his peers, Miguel received his high school diploma. On the last day of school, he told me that he was graduating because of me and that I’d changed his life forever. I never thought of it that way—I was just doing my job.

Age Is Irrelevant

By Joseph Webb, high school teacher, Suitland, Maryland

Students who succumb to the temptation to leave school often see the proverbial light only after it is too late. My experience as an educator includes a quarter-century as an administrator of public schools in the District of Columbia that specialized in multigenerational learning. Although they were called adult education programs, the sole criterion for acceptance was a minimum age of 16, the age at which children were no longer covered by compulsory school attendance laws.

Adolescents enrolled in my school found themselves in classes with students their parents' or even grandparents' age. Students were grouped based on their performance on diagnostic placement tests; ages were irrelevant. In order to meet the students where they were, self-paced learning allowed them to move to higher levels each time they demonstrated mastery of a unit. Only rarely were there any behavior problems because everybody was there voluntarily and because the older students refused to allow any disruptions. The program placed the onus for success where it belongs, squarely upon the shoulders of the student.

Some students will make bad decisions, but we shouldn’t view them as irrevocable. Students who are allowed to return to school often are more focused and committed than their peers who never left the fold. There are times when we must take several steps backward in order to get a running start.

Her 14 Inner City Students Head to College

By Barbara Murphy, Stone Middle School, Huntsville, Alabama

An 8th grade teacher encouraged her inner city students to write and publish a book about their lives. Now, four years later, they are set to graduate high school and enter college, partially paid for with the proceeds of their book.

In May 2007, a special group of inner-city students known as "The Reality Street Writers" will graduate from high school. What makes them special? Although they were classified as "gifted," these students were considered "at-risk" and "unwilling to use what brains they have."

The story of The Reality Street Writers begins when they were 8th graders.

Teacher's Inspiration
Erin Gruwell, high school teacher of the "Freedom Writers" (of current film fame), spoke at our district's first teachers' meeting of the year. She talked about the transformation of 150 students and the world around them-through the publishing of their journal entries. Using The Diary of Anne Frank and Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Sarajevo as their guides, they undertook a life-changing, eye-opening journey against intolerance and misunderstanding.

I remember thinking, "Why can't I do that with my 8th graders?" In my creative writing classes, I require students to keep a journal to express their ideas, observations, and emotions.

Presenting the Idea to My Students
At the beginning of school, I introduced my students to The Freedom Writers' Diary, the collected writings of Gruwell's students, and I proposed that they publish their own writings. At first, the students were not overly excited about doing a writing project, but they didn't shy away from the challenge.

Who thought we could actually get a book published?  I thought we would quit halfway through. —J.I.

During that first semester, we read The Diary of Anne Frank and The Children of Topaz: The Story of a Japanese-American Internment Camp. They learned to see in these books parallels to their own lives, as they recorded their thoughts and feelings in their journals. They dubbed themselves "The Reality Street Writers."

The real point of our book is us telling the world what we wanted to say and share. We chose not to remain silent anymore, to speak out against injustice in the world and to prove that just about any hardship can be overcome.   —J.R.

Writing About Their Lives
The students selected the topics of family, home, gangs, neighborhood, friends, love and hate, and school. Their stories reflected the school's demographics-working class families, subsidized housing, 98 percent of students receiving free lunch, and 70 percent single-parent households-and the problems of drugs, gangs, neighborhood and family frictions, and financial difficulties.

You see dealers and ho's stand on the corners waiting to make a drop, sell whatever they can; weed, coke or ecstasy.   —L.T.

The students spent hours in the computer lab, typing, revising, editing, and retyping. They critiqued their own and each other's work.

Writing these entries in our journal has taken a lot of stuff off my chest.   —B.G.

Some, caught up in the wave of creativity, added poetry. Others wrote about the local detention home.

Three times I've been sent to the D. Home. It's not exactly your Hilton Hotel!   —T.C.

Community Support & Unexpected Opportunities
The community support exceeded our expectations. Two local corporations covered the costs of printing and a local lawyer set up a nonprofit corporation to manage and account for any proceeds from the sale of the book. (This money is in a trust fund for the students' college education.)

So what, if it (the book) doesn't make a lot of money, writing a book is a big accomplishment for kids our age.   —B.G.

Local author Homer Hickam (author of Rocket Boys, Torpedo Junction , and many others) served as the class's mentor and wrote our Foreword. On the day of our first book signing, Hickam told the students, their parents, and community guests, "Millions of people want to write and be published. Only a few can, and these students are among those few."

The students received local and statewide recognition and coverage in five educational publications, made appearances on local TV shows, and met with U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige.

Two of the Reality Street Writers are in college and the others have plans for college!

Because of this book we have expanded our thinking, writing, and speaking skills. We spoke to all sizes of groups, 20 to 3,000 people. It was hard work but it made us better people.   —B.G.

In the past four years, the students have succeeded academically (all are in the top 30 percent of their classes) and been involved in community and school activities. This project opened doors for the students to places they never knew existed.

Writing this book...made me think of people in different ways. When I started reading…the other stories, I realized no one's life is sugar coated and everyone has problems…This book really opened my eyes to not be judgmental of others.   —K.W. 

Where Are They Now?
Students in some big-city school districts have a less than 50-50 chance of graduating from high school with their peers.

I am proud to say that 100 percent of my student-authors, The Reality Street Writers, are graduating in May 2007 (except for two who graduated early and are now in college). In the last four years, these students have succeeded academically, have done community service, and have planned to go on to further education. They are responsive, responsible, and active-totally engaged in their education. In the last four years, some students traveled to Washington, D.C., Denver, Atlanta, and Birmingham to speak about their book. At the end of their senior year, they will be honored by Alabama Governor Bob Riley and others for their achievements.
 
Perhaps these young people would have succeeded without being published authors. Who knows? But these students have two accomplishments of note in their young lives. They have written a book, something rarely done at their age. And they have beaten the odds by graduating from an inner city school.

Related Link

Freedom Writers Foundation - A nonprofit organization that helps decrease high school dropout rates through the replication and enhancement of the Freedom Writers Method. (The Freedom Writers movie is based on the book Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them.)
 

About the Author
Barbara Murphy teaches English literature and writing at Stone Middle School in Huntsville, Alabama. As a gifted specialist, Murphy works with the advanced core content area teachers. She also teaches Spanish, journalism, and creative writing and works with students on independent projects.

Maryland and Other States Attempt to Reduce Truancies

In March, Maryland House of Delegates approved a bill that would deny driver's licenses to students with 10 or more unexcused absences in the previous calendar year. "The bill would require school districts to report each case of truancy to the Motor Vehicle Administration, and the student would have to present an attendance record to the state to get a permit."

The bill does not suspend privileges, however, of students who already have a license and are truant. "Maryland does not require students to continue school after age 16, and lawmakers were concerned that denying them licenses for absenteeism might have the unintended effect of encouraging them to drop out."

Other states with policies that tie student attendance or achievements to the privilege of driving:

• Nine states, including West Virginia and Texas, require attendance in school to receive a license.
  
  
• Virginia, Illinois, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Tennessee require students younger than 18 to have a high school diploma or GED, or to be regularly attending school and be in good standing, to get a license.

Source: Lisa Rein, Washington Post (Friday, March 16, 2007).

They're the Comeback Kids!

By Darlene Johnson, alternative high school teacher, Phoenix, Arizona

I have had the privilege of working with dropouts and at-risk students for 12 years at Sunnyslope High School in Phoenix, Arizona. I say the privilege because I have worked with children that have overcome diversity and challenges often beyond their control. I run and teach a program called the New Concepts Program, which focuses on helping high school students mainstream back into traditional school or graduate. 

Often these students face crises at home, homelessness, or medical issues or tragedies. Incarceration, counselors, and shelters are second nature to many of my students by their mid-teens. But throughout all this, they recognize the importance of an education and relish in the safety of our small community in the classroom.  

Do I believe that there is one cure-all for dropouts? After 12 years, no. Unfortunately, society's ills often make education take second place for these children. But I do know this, when opportunities and means of assistance are provided, these students rise to the occasion and develop resiliency beyond most people's comprehension. These are our survivors who will go forth to make our country a stronger, better place.

About the Author
Darlene Johnson's career has included six years in the U.S. Army, six years with the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, and twelve years of teaching high school. Her teaching years have been spent in alternative education in the New Concepts Program at Sunnyslope High School in the Glendale Union High School District in Phoenix, Arizona. At age 29 with two small children, she became the widow of a Phoenix police officer. She decided then that she wanted to insure that fewer teenagers were placed in handcuffs and that many of the ones she had seen incarcerated would receive an education that would change their worlds. Johnson says she would never pass up the opportunity to work with what many like to call "dropouts"--"I like to think of them as the Comeback Kids!"

Staff Searches for Ways to Meet Students' Needs

By Bernard Nabozny, high school teacher, Jackson, Michigan

Bernard Nabozny and principal greet students at the door.

Helping students who are stumbling on the road to graduation is our "soul" purpose at Tomlinson Education Center, an alternative high school in Jackson, Michigan. Ours are the intractably truant, the probationary, the pregnant, and the discipline problems.

The teachers learn these young people's stories—the missing childhoods, the abuse, the low income/low education history—and we all search for ways to reach as many of them as we can. Those students in turn find a trust most of them have never known, and make some progress in their stay with us.

I've been here nine years, and have seen teachers go to students' homes to bring them to school and stay late to help them with missing work—or just to talk. Teachers make calls every school day to wake or motivate certain students who need someone to hold them accountable. I've given a student my glasses when his were broken in a domestic dispute.

Last year, the whole staff worked into the summer to present the school board with a new block schedule, so our students could earn 16 credits a year and have the chance to get caught up. We do these things on top of our regular teaching load to catch the ones that have slipped through the cracks, all the while struggling to abide by the misguided NCLB restrictions and regulations.

It's all worth it when I think of the ones who make it. Jenny had always liked art class at her high school, but she was asked not to return when she became pregnant. At first she thought it would be impossible to graduate as a young mom, but she was thrilled to find that our school had daycare and teachers who didn’t judge her. She applied herself, took as many art classes as her credits would allow, and even became my teaching assistant for a time. When she graduated, she wrote a note to the school board praising our program, and singled me out for giving her the opportunity to be successful.

About the Author
Bernard Nabozny teaches art and English at Tomlinson School, in the Jackson Public Schools in Jackson, Michigan.

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More than two thousand teenagers walk away from school every day in this country. Solving this dropout crisis will require all of us working together. Ideas, plans, and strategies are needed from the national policy level to the individual student level.

To address the problem on the national level, NEA created an action plan based on promising practices and a range of experience and data.

• Read NEA's 12-Point Action Plan to find solutions that are based on experience and best practices.

To address the dropout problem on the individual student level requires ideas and solutions from everyone in the community. Two ideas that can encourage students are setting expectations and making adjustments that support students.

Setting expectations is important in every school activity—and getting a high school diploma is no exception. Students need to hear from adults over the years that they expect them to finish school. They need to have conversations with adults and their friends about "when you graduate from high school" and "your high school diploma will help you…" and "what are you going to do when you graduate?"

• Read Teacher Kept 12-Year Promise about a teacher who set expectations early—with her kindergarten students.

Making adjustments to meet the needs of students is not a new concept, but one that we must continue to consider as we work with students who may need tutoring, a change of homeroom, or an alternative setting.

• Read "I Don't Need to Graduate" about in-school tutoring that paid off.
  
  
• Read Adapting the School Setting about a teacher who opened her homeroom to a student.
  
  
• Read We Provided Alternative Schooling about a teacher working with a student who may not return.

Telling students what we expect of them and then making adjustments that support them can provide just the boost in confidence students need to stay in school and graduate.  

What do you think?

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Join a Dropout Prevention Discussion

Suggest a Topic 

Attended Her Kindergartners' High School Graduation

By Sheri Green, elementary school teacher, Muncie, Indiana  

Sheri Green and former student.

Twenty years ago, I made a promise to my first kindergarten class. I said that I would be at their high school graduation, and that they had better be there too! They were the Class of 2000.

Before the graduation ceremony, I sent each former student a congratulatory letter and a poem I composed. Several of the students said it was my promise to see them through to graduation that helped keep them in school.

I make the same promise to each new class. Since then, it's been 10 kinder classes, seven first-grade classes, a third-grade class, and two second-grade classes, including the one I teach now.

Years before they graduate, I see former kinder students of mine at the mall or in a restaurant. They always remind me to attend their commencement. They ask me, "Are you still coming to my graduation?" With a heartfelt smile and a nod, I say: "I wouldn’t miss it for the world." The "promise" has blessed me just as much as them.

About the Author
Sheri Green teaches second grade at South View Elementary School in Muncie, Indiana. 

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Does It Really Help Students Graduate? 

By Mary Alsop, alternative high school teacher, Salt Lake City, Utah

As a teacher in alternative education, I work hard with my students daily, but I wonder: If we cannot save them, why are we here? What is our charge?

Here are some things we've faced at my school recently:

• Students in the yearbook class are embarrassed to put the word "alternative" on the cover.
  
  
• Students painfully ask what "alternative" means and find the label heavy with meaning.
  
  
• Teachers worry about what lies ahead after many years dedicated to developing a program now being questioned.
  
  
• The only alternative high school in the area to make Annual Yearly Progress, we are now being asked to provide data that what we do works, that our students learn what we teach, and that we are highly qualified to do what we have always done.

Morale is low. 

What do you think about alternative schools?

About the Author
Mary Alsop teaches English at Granite High Alternative in Salt Lake City, Utah. Over the past ten years, she also has taught at Albion Middle School, Eisenhower Junior High, and Central High School. Alsop earned an advanced teaching credential, National Board Certification, in the specialty area of Early Adolescence/English Language Arts.

In this section, you'll find current information about grants, promising practices, reports, and Web sites that promote high school graduation for all students. 

Grants

» $62.2M in Grants - Money to fund longitudinal data systems in 13 states. (Institute of Education Sciences)

»  NEA Foundation Student Achievement Grants - Grants given to improve the academic achievement of students in U.S. public schools and public higher education institutions in any subject area(s). The work should also improve students’ habits of inquiry, self-directed learning, and critical reflection. Deadline: February 1, 2008.

Promising Practices

»  What's Cool about Middle School? - Mentors help incoming students enter middle school with confidence. From Character Education Partnership.

» Freshmen Using Senior Experience (F.U.S.E.) – Mentoring program to help incoming freshmen make a successful transition to high school. From Character Education Partnership.

» Truancy Court - To improve school attendance, academic success, and self-confidence, Truancy Court arranges for 7th and 8th grade students to meet with family court judge, who serves as the children’s mentor for eight weeks. From Character Education Partnership.

» American Indian/Alaska Natives  ( 211 KB) - Some barriers to learning and success faced by these students, strategies to address the barriers, and additional resources for school personnel. NEA Focus On Series 2004-2005.

» Asian/Pacific Islanders (  215 KB) - Some barriers to learning and success faced by these students, strategies to address the barriers, and additional resources for school personnel. NEA Focus On Series 2004-2005.

» Blacks ( 133 KB) - Some barriers to learning and success faced by these students, strategies to address the barriers, and additional resources for school personnel. NEA Focus On Series 2004-2005.

» Hispanics (  149 KB) - Some barriers to learning and success faced by these students, strategies to address the barriers, and additional resources for school personnel. NEA Focus On Series 2004-2005.

» Women and Girls (  91 KB) - Some barriers to learning and success faced by these students, strategies to address the barriers, and additional resources for school personnel. NEA Focus On Series 2004-2005.

» Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, and Transgendered Persons (  825 KB) - Some barriers to learning and success faced by these students, strategies to address the barriers, and additional resources for school personnel. NEA Focus On Series 2004-2005.

» C.A.R.E.: Strategies for Closing the Achievement Gaps
Guide to help educators ensure that all students have access to high-level classes and high-quality teachers and attain more high school and college diplomas. From NEA 2005.

» Improving Your Child's Education  - A guide for Latino parents. (8 pp.) Education Trust, 2004.

Quick Steps - From the States

» High School Redesign - New Mexico legislation targets gaps between school and career and pushes legal dropout age to 18. (PDF, press release)

»  Reach Out to Kids & Create Calm, Quiet, Purposeful Schools  - New England outreach specialists work on students and research scientist, on the learning environment. (Edutopia, 2007)

»  Reaching Out to Families - California community aides help students who repeatedly miss school.

Research, Reports, & Fact Sheets

» When Girls Don't Graduate - Report on the dropout crisis for girls.

» California Dropout Research Project - Site with statistics, publications, and activities in the news.

» Dropout Risk Factors & Exemplary Programs - Dropping out is result of long process of disengagement.

» Dropout Prevention Programs: Ten-year investment  (PDF table)

» What Dropouts Cost Us ( PDF,  83 KB,  6 pp) - A brief on what the nation pays for high schools. (Alliance  for Excellent Education).

» Report on Dropout Rates - U.S. dropout trends over last three decades. (NCES 2007). 

» The Silent Epidemic ( PDF, 1137 KB, 17 pp) - Perspectives of high school dropouts. Gates Foundation Bridgeland Study (also known as the Civic Enterprises Survey). March 2006.

» One-Third of a Nation (  PDF, 1883 KB, 48 pp) - Report of rising dropout rates and declining opportunities. Educational Testing Service, 2005.

» The School Dropout Crisis  - Exploring communitywide solutions. From Learning to Finish, a national initiative of the Pew Partnership for Civic Change.

» School Start Time Report - This report found that starting the school day later is better for adolescents.

» Critical Evidence ( PDF,  957 KB, 24 pp) - Research studies on the relationships between arts and academic and social outcomes for students, including youth who are at risk of dropping out.

» Public High School Graduation and College-Readiness Rates: 1991-2002 - This study calculated graduation rates, both nationally and for each state, for each public school graduating class from 1991 to 2002. Education Commission of States, 2005.

» Fighting the Bully Battle - Fact sheets about bullying and being  bullied and how it can cause kids to withdraw from school. From National School Safety Center (2006).

» What Communities Can Do (PDF) - Research & practice. (Johns Hopkins 2007)

Audio Article

» Dropouts Aren't All 'F' Students (audio) (3:13 min) (NPR)

Book

»  Look Out College, Here I Come! - Governor Michael F. Easley (NC) tells children that it's never too early to start thinking about college and career goals. NEA & Pearson Custom Publishing, 2007.

Web Sites

» Boost Up - Through videos and text, ten students of the class of 2007 talk about who has given them a boost to stay in school and graduate. From the Ad Council & the U.S. Army.

» Connect with Kids -  A commercial group that produces a television series addressing the problems children face and creates a curriculum for K-12. See also Connect with Kids Dropout information.

» Harvard Civil Rights Project - The CRP generates and synthesizes research on key civil rights and equal opportunity policies that have been neglected or overlooked. Here you'll find their work on dropouts and graduation rates.

»  National Dropout Prevention Centers - Providing information & promoting networks to help youth in at-risk situations graduate from high school.

» Project UTurn - Philadelphia citywide campaign for turning around the dropout problem.

Here you'll find the stories of people who are changing lives by helping students stay in school and graduate.

Archived Articles & Videos from the Main Page

Teaching Metacognition
Can it reduce dropout rate? (TeachersNet)

Keep Middle Schoolers Moving Forward
By Paul Rayius
He builds on their passions.

I Am an Educator  (Videos)
Teachers, parents, & community saved student. (See Clyde, the English teacher)  (1:19 min) (NEA)

A Tale of Three Sisters
Will the Pele girls graduate this year?

Georgia Has Fewer Dropouts
Graduation coaches helped struggling kids.

Art Therapy
By John Rosales
Psychology & painting help at-risk students. (NEA Today 2007)

Reaching for their Dreams
By Danielle Taylor
Educating students whose parents are in prison. (NEA Today 2007)

Students Come Alive in Automotive Class
By Steve Schuld
Teacher capitalizes on their enthusiasm.

Long-Term Absentees
By Emily Mann
Find out why they don't return.

Students Face Obstacles
By Denise Arrigo
Teachers need to find out what they need.

Meeting Students Where They Are
By Joseph Webb
Age is irrelevant.

Not Dropouts - Comeback Kids!
By Darlene Johnson
Alternative high school teacher works with children who've overcome many challenges.

Student-Authors Set to Graduate
By Barbara Murphy
Her 14 inner city students head to college.

Helping Students Who Are Stumbling
By Bernard Nabozny 
Staff searches for ways to meet students' needs.

Teacher Kept 12-Year Promise
By Sheri Green
Attended her kindergartners' high school graduation.

Adapting the School Setting
By Virginia Beaston
Teacher opens her homeroom to student.

How Effective Is Alternative Education?
By Mary Alsop
Does it help students graduate?

We Provided Alternative Schooling
By Mary Alsop
What more could we have done?

"I Don't Need to Graduate"
By Christine Sokalski
In-school tutoring paid off.

Boosting Hispanic Graduation Rates
Missouri teacher's work earned NEA award in 2005.

Articles by Would-Be Dropouts

Back to High School at 20
By Sylvia Perez
She went back to earn her diploma.

I Want To Go Back To School
By Jenissa M.
It's hard for this 16-year-old mother to take care of an infant and get an education.

I Am Not a Dropout
By Angela P.
Student inspires another student to stay in school and get out of the 'hood.

In-School Tutoring Paid Off

By Christine Sokalski, high school teacher, New Kensington, Pennsylvania

Brian (not his real name) was a bit of rebel with long hair and an "I don't need to graduate" attitude. He was lucky to have a mother who worked as a school district secretary and forced him to attend.

I had a very small classroom at the time to which seniors in need were sent for tutoring. Brian was one of them. He and I got along, and I pushed him to succeed. I didn't consider my work with him any more special than with others until a letter came to me about two years after Brian graduated.

He had joined the Navy and married a woman from England. The letter also said his wife was pregnant with a girl and they were naming her after me. He credited me with helping him graduate and become successful. I was very touched.

I cried even more, 10 years after the letter, when his mother called to tell me that Brian had become an officer and had visited her in Florida. He explained (to his mom) how he had planned to quit school, but I inspired him to finish. His mother then sent me a photo of my namesake and I got to see a beautiful young lady named after me!

It's a memory I keep in my heart for those school days when I feel like a truck has run over me and that I may have gone nowhere in eight hours. To have contributed to even one successful life after 33 years of teaching makes me feel worthwhile, no matter what.    

About the Author
Christine Sokalski teaches at  Valley High School in New Kensington, Pennsylvania.

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Teacher Opened Her Homeroom to Student

By Virginia Beaston, physical education teacher, Kansas, Ohio   

Years ago, we had a very charismatic football coach in our high school who favored his "cool" players and often ridiculed others, like Joe.

Joe was on the heavy side. His appearance could have also benefited from braces, proper hygiene, and clothing that was not tattered. I had Joe in my math class. He enjoyed reasonable success. At that school in those days, we had a lengthy homeroom period that focused on helping develop the whole child. My group met in the library. I used the time to build cohesive groups, investigate career choices, and have appropriate fun. The football players met down the hall in the coaches’ room where they talked sports and sometimes made disparaging remarks about other students, including Joe.

One day, Joe came storming into my homeroom. He was very upset and near tears. He asked to change homeroom period to the library because of what was going on in the coaches’ room. I said, "Sure," without really thinking about it. Almost three years later, Joe graduated. During that time, he had started working and no longer had time for football practice.

On Commencement Day, he invited me to his graduation party. I was hesitant to attend because two of Joe's relatives were former students of mine and we had had some "issues." I wasn't looking forward to seeing them. In the end, I took my 10-year-old daughter with me to the party, which was held in the gravel parking lot where Joe and his family lived.

As soon as Joe saw me, he came up and gave me a hug and said: "You know I wouldn't have been on that stage today if it wasn't for you." Soon, his mother walked up carrying a large basket with a beautiful house plant. "Joe and I want you to have this for everything you did. If you hadn't got him out of that coaches' room and helped him deal with the other players who were so mean to him, he would have been kicked out of school."

I was speechless. I stood there with the plant in my hands, tears running down my cheeks. After we left the party, I sobbed all the way down the road. I even had to pull over to compose myself.

About the Author
Virginia "Ginni" Beaston, is currently an elementary physical education teacher at Lakota Central and West Elementary Schools in Kansas, Ohio (Sandusky County). Over the course of her twenty-nine years of teaching, she has been a high school math teacher, a high school health and physical education teacher, an athletic director, head volleyball coach, and now an elementary physical education teacher. 

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What More Could We Have Done?

By Mary Alsop, alternative high school teacher, Salt Lake City, Utah

If you had asked Pedro what his future would be, he would have said jail. But his photo essay said something different. It showed a picture of two beautiful, brown-eyed children. And the caption he wrote said he wanted a family someday.

Pedro was my student during my first year working at an alternative high school.  I worked with him on his writing, discussed his idolization of Al Capone (which he inherited from his grandfather in Mexico ), defended him in the faculty room, bent the rules for him, and became his advocate when we met with the administrators. Even his gang, advocates of "Brown Pride," supported his graduating. But Pedro didn't graduate. He dropped out just 2.5 credits short of a high school diploma.

Will Pedro ever recover his credits and graduate? He might. He might not.

As a teacher in alternative education, I see the faces that fill the spaces of the "achievement gap." I work with them daily, struggle with them, fight with them, and cajole them into learning. I like to think that I succeeded in letting them know that there is someone who cares whether or not they receive a diploma.

What more could we have done?

Related Links

» How Effective Is Alternative Education? - More comments from Mary Alsop.

» Your Ideas About Alternative Schools - Dropout prevention discussion board.

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About the Author
Mary Alsop teaches English at Granite High Alternative in Salt Lake City, Utah. Over the past ten years, she also has taught at Albion Middle School, Eisenhower Junior High, and Central High School. Alsop earned an advanced teaching credential, National Board Certification, in the specialty area of Early Adolescence/English Language Arts.

Here you'll find steps that community members can take to address the dropout problem.

Tips from NEA

• Tips for Parents and Family —Ideas to help parents and family get involved with their child's schooling and staying in school. (en español)
  
  
• Tips for Educators and School Administrators—Ideas to help educators and school administrators address the causes of the school dropout problem.
  
  
• Tips for Policymakers and Elected Officials—Ideas for policymakers and elected officials to help with the school dropout problem.
  
  
• Tips for Business and Community—Ideas for business and community to help with the school dropout problem.

Tips from States

• Career Classes Make a Comeback – High-tech centers & expanded programs in Texas.
  
  
• Coming Soon: Toughlove High? - Bootcamp-style dropout academy in Washington state.
  
  
• No School, No Driving—Chronic truants & dropouts in Illinois will lose driving privileges.  
  
  
• Reaching Out to Families—In California, community aides help students who repeatedly miss school.
  
  
• High School Redesign—New Mexico legislation targets gaps between middle school, high school, college, and career and pushes legal dropout age to 18. (  PDF, 1 p., press release)
  
  
• Reach Out to Kids and Create Calm, Quiet, Purposeful Schools—Massachusetts outreach specialists and Maryland research scientist are working on the students and the learning environment. (Edutopia, 2007)

Missouri Teacher's Work Earned NEA Award in 2005

Not willing to accept the growing Hispanic dropout rate at Springfield's (Missouri) Central High School, Alicia Traub, a daughter of American missionaries raised in Argentina, launched a Latino Bulldog Club for Hispanic students considered academically "at-risk."

The Spanish teacher reached out to the students by providing resources to help them at school and by routinely telephoning and meeting with potential dropouts. She also reaches out to parents by providing them with resources to help their children stay in school.

As an Anglo familiar with Latin American culture, Traub is able to explain cultural differences to her colleagues. She has taken her non-Spanish speaking students to a sister city in Mexico for a weeklong stay with host families.

"Some Hispanic students didn't see a reason for graduating, and cultural differences discouraged others from finishing high school," said Traub. Although American, Traub was culturally Argentinean when she came to Springfield to attend Evangel University and she knew first-hand the difficulty of adjusting to a new culture.

Since her arrival, the Hispanic dropout rate has declined steadily.

In April 2005, Alicia Traub received NEA's George I. Sanchez Memorial Award for her work in the Hispanic community strengthening educational opportunities.

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