Dropout Prevention Efforts

This article was really interesting to me particularly because I work with the exact students Bruce was talking about. I teach at an alternative high school where we have a population almost exclusively of at risk students who have not been able to succeed in a regular high school. They all have different issues and situations but at the same time they are all there because the regular style high school did not work out for them.

I think it is incredibly important to raise the graduation rates of our students because it is so tough to get far in a job without a high school diploma. One of the biggest problems that I see addressed in the article is that the students who are a drop out rise don’t seem to be addressed until they are about to drop out. At the point where a student is about to drop out it is very tough to get them motivated about finishing school. At my school we have plenty of students who are there to graduate but we also have kids who have had so many failures and have a really hard time controlling themselves long enough to stay in school that they have a really big battle to fight in order to complete and graduate. I think the idea of targeting these students early is a great idea. This is definitely something to be focused on. By the time they get to me that sometimes have such a poor attitude because they feel like the system has either forgotten about them or just doesn’t care about them. We need to find them earlier to show them we do care.

I also think the idea of online classes for these students is a great one that works sometimes. Last week I had two conversations with students about the E2020 (online) classes they were taking with our program. One student came to me asking my advice about how to deal with an online math class that she just didn’t understand. She has had a tough time passing math with the math teacher we have at school so she decided to take the online course and is again having a difficult time, not understanding the material. She is not sure how she will earn the math credits she needs to graduate and so the school is in the process of trying to figure out how to accommodate this situation. The other student came to me excited because she had just completed her online course in health and was so fast that she will be able to do another class, effectively completing two classes in the time she should have been able to complete one. This will allow her to graduate earlier. I think the things we are doing to help our at risk students are great but I think we need to continue to work in order to give our students the best chance they can possibly have.