CNN has an article up about a recently released report on high school dropouts.
The report can be downloaded from here – unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be an HTML version, only a PDF
http://www.civicenterprises.net/pdfs/thesilentepidemic3-06.pdf
In a nutshell:
- 47% of dropouts say that their classes were not interesting.
- 69% say they were not motivated/inspired to work hard
- 70% say they could have graduated if they had tried
- 88% say that they were passing when they dropped out
- 81% say they recognize a high school diploma is “vital to their success”
- 74% would have stayed in school if they were able to “do it again”
The results are certainly interesting, but this was a poll (the study does not indicate – or at least I couldn’t find where it indicated – that actual transcripts of the dropouts were obtained). Having quite a bit of experience comparing student perceptions of academic performance with actual academic performance, I’ll simply say I notice that many students think that they are doing better than they actually are. I don’t think that they are necessarily lying about it, but many students simply don’t know whether they’re passing or not. I’m not buying the “88% were passing” figure without transcripts, frankly.
Lots of students complained that their classes were “boring” or “not relevant” to their future job prospects or to their “life”. I wonder if having more contact with people that work outside of the school or people in industry can help.
Both the teachers and the students need this interaction – the teachers so they can use more real-world examples, and the students so that they will believe that the real-world examples are relevant. Some students simply won’t believe that anything they don’t choose to do on their own is important. I see too many pre-nursing students around here who actually don’t believe that things like basic knowledge of human anatomy or the ability to calculate how much of a drug to give a patient will be useful in the nursing profession!
Will more contact with “real” professionals at an earlier age make their lessons more “relevant” and save these students?
I think you’re right about using professionals to “link” studies to careers.
As someone who got bored, tuned out, and dropped out of high school, got a GED, and then got my BA as a member of 2 honor societies and Who’s Who, I know how the feeling of being under-challenged can affect high school students.
As someone who struggled through math in college, having only gotten as far as Geometry in high school, I can also attest that while I was bored in high school, my dropping out really put me at a disadvantage when I went to college.
Some of us are so eager to hear the tires of our enthusiasm squeal upon the pavement of life that we miss the obvious. Having someone sit there and tell me “if you want to be like me, this is what you have to do” may have helped me knuckle down and put up with a lot of stuff that I didn’t see the need for back then.
This is why I do mentoring for Communication undergrads at my college, and enjoy lecturing undergrad classes. It helps me do what I wish someone had done for me.