US High School Dropout Students Assignment Help
Introduction
Schooling is an integral part of the bringing up of individuals in the modern times. The prevalent system of education constitutes of levels. High schooling is a level at which secondary level of education is imparted before a youngster enters College for further specialized studies. Contrary to the earlier times it has been noticed that the trend of attaining High school education has been on a decline in the recent times. Referencing from the Centre of Education United States of America dosomething.org quotes,
” Every year, over 1.2 million students drop out of high school in the United States alone. That’s a student every 26 seconds – or 7,000 a day.” (11 facts about high school dropout rates, n.d.)
The increasing rates of dropouts of students from High school are of much concern not only to the families of the youngsters but also to the entire state as a whole. This is owing to the fact that such individuals who drop out from high school are less likely to earn bread and butter for their families and are thus expected to become a burden on the State itself. This text aims at exploring the reasons behind the increasing dropout rates in the light of studies done by researchers.
Discussion
Socio Economic Issues of family are termed as one of the main reasons behind the dropping out of students from the high schools of the US. Russell W. Rumberger (2011) mentions in his book ” Dropping Out: Why Students Drop Out of High School and What Can Be Done About It” that this factor mainly concerns the non- white races residing within the US or effects those who belong to very poor rural families. One of the few measures of Socio Economic factors is parental education and family income. The dropping out behavior of students is mainly guided intuitionally by these two powerful factors. The latter of the two reasons, the financial income of the family, is an evident factor for the dropping out of students from high schools in US. High school education requires substantial amounts of money to be put in it. Anthony S. Bryk and Yeow Meng Thum University of Chicago (1989 p.354) mention that it is because of the Socio Economic Factor that mainly the students belonging to the Hispanics and Blacks living in the United States are more likely to be a major part of the high schooling dropout students. Having lower Economic resources the poor households are very less likely to have an education related atmosphere within them. The absence of Material related to education may prove to be a major cause of youngsters belonging to such households having less interest in completing their high school education. Referring to the connection of high school education to economic status of a household Ruberger (2011, p.9) mentions,
“Parental education influences students’ aspirations and educational support (for e.g. help with homework), while family income provides resources to support their children’s education including access to better quality schools, after-school and summer school programs and support for learning within the homes (for example computers etc).” (Rumberger. 2011, p.9)
Paul Dimaggio(1982, p.189) however who researched upon causes of dropouts other than the socio economic factors and narrated that the measures of socio economic factors had negligible effect on the grades of a child and therefore had very less to contribute in his decision to dropout from high school. He suggested that it was mainly the cultural norms of the specific class of society that favored education and that it had nothing to do with the socio economic effect of specific families.
Another important factor that leads to the dropping out of students from High School is the academic environment and policy based set up of the schools themselves. (Lee, Burkam, 2003) Many a schools not practicing character building among students and not engaging in constructing confidence building talks with youngsters are most likely to face cases of high school drop outs than schools practicing these factors as a part of their normal routine. Patricia L. Hardre and John Marshall Reeve from the University of Iowa (2003) revealed in their research that schools and the teaching environment contribute immensely to the building up of self determination theory in youngsters. Failure to do so may lead to motivation and determination less decision making by the young minds often leading to decisions such as drop outs from high school etcetera.
“Environments that support students’ needs for competence and self-determination constitute autonomy-supportive environments, whereas those that neglect and frustrate these needs constitute controlling environments.” (Hardre, Reeve, 2003, p.347)
Motivational brought up, when nurtured within the classrooms establishes a bonding between the student and the school and also provide the students with the motivational force that they need to experience to remain committed to continuing their education within school till their graduation. The structure of schools, their academic organization and their social organization that pertains to the student teacher relationship are integral factors that influence the dropout rates of students from high school. (Lee, Burkam, 2003, p.3)
Some students may not fare well academically at the onset of an academic session or in their first year of high school eventually not scoring well in their tests. If the school academic curriculum and educational policy does not give room for the counseling and specially consideration of such students they may be let down from schooling itself. Such students may begin to suffer from absenteeism and grade retention adding more to their already suffering education. Academic and discipline problems have such a universal impact that their affect stands true even for the children who study at academic levels lower than high school. (Lee, Burkam, 2003, p.4)
Discipline and curriculum related issues are thought to be settled well in Catholic schools as compared to public schools. This is also supported by the fact the dropout rate from Catholic High schools are much lesser than those at public schools. (Bryk, Thum, 1989, p.358)
Many researchers however suggest that schools cannot be held solely responsible for the dropping out of students from school. Tyler and Lofstrom (2009) state that there are a multitude of underlying factors that contribute to an eventual decision of dropping out. The authors argue,
” if other nonschool factors cause a student to lose interest in school and drop out, then focusing on school disengagement and ignoring the underlying factors that cause the school disengagement might do little to change the dropout decision.” (Tyler and Lofstrom, 2009)
Conclusion
Conclusively it may be said that the escalating dropout rates of students from high school can be taken care of once the reasons behind them are evaluated as discussed and narrated in the discussion above. After evaluation steps should be taken in order to strengthen the socio-economic issues of deserving families and also to established standardized levels of education and training among all the high schools within the country.
References:
11 facts about highschool drop out rates. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-high-school-dropout-rates
Bryk, A. S., & Thum, Y. M. (1989). The effects of high school organization on dropping out: An exploratory investigation. American Educational Research Journal, 26(3), 353-383.
DiMaggio, P. (1982). Cultural capital and school success: The impact of status culture participation on the grades of US high school students. American sociological review, 189-201.
Hardre, P. L., & Reeve, J. (2003). A motivational model of rural students’ intentions to persist in, versus drop out of, high school. Journal of educational psychology,95(2), 347
Lee, V. E., & Burkam, D. T. (2003). Dropping out of high school: The role of school organization and structure. American Educational Research Journal, 40(2), 353-393
Rumberger, R. W. (2011). Dropping out: Why students drop out of high school and what can be done about it. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
Tyler, J. H., & Lofstrom, M. (2009). Finishing high school: Alternative pathways and dropout recovery. The Future of Children, 19(1), 77-103.
