Students Are Dropping Out

In Canada, “Of the 30.8 million people who live in Canada, 19.1% are children under age 15. (UNDP, 2002) Although compulsory education begins at age 6 in most jurisdictions, 95% of 5-year-olds and 43% of 4-year-olds were attending school in 1999-2000. Enrolment at age 16-the last year of compulsory education in most jurisdictions-was above 90% in 1999-2000 in most provinces and territories.” (http://www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/81-582-XIE/2003001/highlights.htm)

“The pan-Canadian secondary school graduation rate rose from 76% in 1994-1995 to 78% in 1999-2000. However, it remained well below that of Japan (94%), Germany (91%) and France (84%). Graduation rates in Canada remained higher for females (83%) than for males (73%), but the gap narrowed in the latter half of the 1990s.” (Education indicators in Canada: Report of the Pan-Canadian Education Indicators Program 2003, http://www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/81-582-XIE/2003001/highlights.htm)

“As of December 1999, the high school dropout rate for 20-year-olds stood at 12%. 41% Does not like school and unsatisfied with programs, 41% Find no interest in classes, 75% Miss days of school, 45% Does not participate in school activities, 36% Has repeated one year in primary school…” (HRDC, 2002, http://www.osde.ca/english/stats_canada.htm) “Quebec and Prince Edward Island have the highest drop out rates at 16 per cent. And some schools in Montreal's poorer neighborhoods have drop out rates well over 50 percent.” (CBC 2002 http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/view?/news/2002/01/24/dropouts020124) 30% of high achievers leave school without a diploma (Statistics Canada 1991)

In the United States: “Each weekday morning, more than 13 million teenagers report to public high school classrooms across the United States (National Center for Education Statistics, 2002 – www.edweek.org) "Writing in August 2003, Washington times columnist, John McCaslin noted that, "every school day, 3,000 secondary students drop out in the United States. Once the 2003-2004 school year gets underway, nearly 540,000 young people will walk away from the classroom without earning a high school diploma..." (http://michnews.com/artman/publish/article_3272.shtml)

British Columbia Drop-outs
From http://www.rewardsprogram.ca/dropout.html

In 1999/2000, BC’s graduation rate was 75.3% (Ministry of Education Annual Report: July 1, 1999 to June 30, 2000, (http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/annualreport)
These graduation rates include students who drop out and later return to complete their diploma, at an additional cost of $300 Million annually in British Columbia
One in seven dropouts in BC is dependent upon welfare within a year and a half of dropping out, compared with one in fifty of those who graduate
On average, drop-outs earn 20 percent less than high school graduates, with lost federal and provincial tax revenues of about $515 Million annually in BC alone
85% of income assistance expenditures in BC (Ministry spending of $2.2 Billion in 2001) go to high school dropouts
90 percent of criminal justice expenditures in BC (Ministry spending of $1.0 Billion in 2001) go to high school dropouts

"Hagood believes one reason the drop-out rate has risen is because graduating is more difficult than it was five or 10 years ago. [...] Hagood said few students drop out because of social problems. Most of the problems are academic. She said when students begin failing courses, they don't see a way out in the time frame they want to get out of school. When they know they can't graduate with their class, they get discouraged and quit. [...] The major problem, she says, is a lack of a work ethic among students. "You've got to work to get out of high school these days," she said. [...] She said if students come to the high school with the same study habits they had in the earlier grades, they can expect their grades to fall by one letter grade...” (http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm? BRD=2235&dept_id=439676&newsid=11270427&PAG=461&rfi=9)

“Smaller high schools have been credited with improving student achievement. Studies conducted in Chicago and New York City have shown that smaller schools resulted in improved student achievement as measured by test scores and dropout rates (Stiefel, 1998; Wasley, 2000). A recent study of urban, suburban, and rural schools in four states found that smaller schools helped close the achievement gap—as measured by test scores—between students from poor communities and students from more affluent ones.”(Howley, 2000). (http://www.edweek.org) “The risk of teens for substance abuse correlates significantly with the size of the school they attend, measured by the number of students. Only 12 percent of the teens who attend schools with fewer than 800 students are at high risk of substance abuse, while 25 percent of teens who attend schools with more than 1200 students are at high risk.” (National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse VIII: Teens and Parents, The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, 2003, http://www.casacolumbia.org/pdshopprov/files/2003_Teen_Survey_8_19_03.pdf)

“In 1985, Tennessee began what is widely considered to be the most conclusive study on class size, involving 70 schools and 12,000 students. Students entering kindergarten were randomly assigned to one of three kinds of classes: a small class of 13 to 17 students, a regular-size class of 22 to 26, or a regular-size class with both a teacher and a teacher's aide. The students' progress was followed for four years. By 1989, researchers saw that all students in the small classes had benefited, but the impact was greatest on those considered to be at risk -- students from poor families. Teachers' aides, surprisingly, had no effect on students' performance. The project did not include classes with more than 26 pupils. Newer international studies by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have added to the evidence that class size is less important than other factors when it comes to learning. Reducing class size from 28 to 20 students was found to have a minimal impact on student achievement.” (http://www.fcpp.org/publication_detail.php?PubID=632) “For classes of fewer than 30 students, reducing the number of pupils in the classroom can have less of an impact on academic achievement than improving relations between teachers and students, hiring more literacy specialists, early intervention for reading problems and improved classroom management, an educational researcher says… […] Class size has to be very small to make a difference -- only when class size gets to 15 students or less does it affect student performance….” (http://www.fcpp.org/publication_detail.php?PubID=632) In addition in the following study, students who worked 30 hours or more a week had a higher risk of dropping out “followed by those students who did not work at all”. (Catalogue no. 81-595-MIE2003004, (http://statcan.ca/cgi-bin/downpub/studiesfree.cgi)

“Without a core of high-quality teachers, poor-quality schools stay poor. A long-standing education debate asks: Does money matter? After all, spending for K-12 education has almost tripled in inflation-adjusted dollars in the past 40 years. We're not getting a lot more brains for the bucks. In a 1996 Education Week article, researchers Richard J. Murnane and Frank Levy concluded money matters only if it's spent intelligently. They discuss a "natural experiment" that started in 1989, when 16 high-poverty, low- scoring elementary schools in Austin, Texas, were awarded $300,000, above normal school spending each year for five years to settle a desegregation suit. After five years, little had changed at 14 of the 16 schools. Two schools, Zavala and Ortega, improved dramatically in achievement and attendance. Murnane and Levy asked why. In the schools where more money made no difference, principals hired more teachers to lower class size but didn't change the curriculum or teaching methods. At Zavala and Ortega, smaller classes were just part of a series of changes. Both principals committed to raising student achievement. First, they admitted to parents that scores were abysmally low. Murnane and Levy describe what happened at Zavala: "At Zavala Elementary that program began in an evening PTA meeting when Alejandro Melton, the newly appointed principal, asked a parent to read aloud the scores of Zavala's students on the statewide tests. Before this recitation, Zavala's teachers and parents had been locked in mutual misunderstanding. The parents had seen report cards with A's and B's and assumed their children were doing well. The Zavala teachers had thought Zavala parents had little interest in education and so saw no sense in raising issues that would meet with parental indifference or worse. In the short run, the evening produced intense parental anger and a few student transfers. In the longer run, it led to strong parental support to raise student achievement […] Zavala began using the district's gifted-and-talented reading and math curriculum for all students, which required teachers to adopt new teaching strategies. All special-needs children were put in the smaller mainstream classes, saving money for other needs. Offering health care at the school helped raise attendance. Finally, the school pushed to get parents involved, including asking parents to sit on hiring and budget committees. More money made these changes possible. But more money didn't change 14 of the 16 Austin schools. The problem is that bad schools tend to be demoralized. The principal and teachers have given up; the parents and students expect very little. The broken windows described by Williams' students are perfect examples of the "broken windows" theory: If one window is broken, all the windows will be broken. People figure that nobody cares. I've seen immaculate schools that operate on spartan budgets: Some are parochial schools, but others are public schools that don't tolerate disorder.” (More money for schools doesn't end the problems, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/09/12/ING6I8M6AK1.DTL, September 12, 2004)

Also Read: Conformity, Deviance & Resistance

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