Resource: Looking out for dropouts

            Bridgeland hooks the reader in this newspaper article by citing some troubling data on high school dropouts.  It is shocking to me that almost one-third of high school students do not graduate in four years.  While many of these students will graduate, some do end up dropping out.  Drop outs are much more likely to end up in poverty, in prison, or sick.  Many of them become single parents of future dropouts – creating a self-perpetuating cycle of poverty and hurting society as a whole.  Some of the factors that indicate an at-risk student include poor grades, a high number of absences, problems with discipline, and apathy towards school.  Some of these factors can appear as early as elementary school and gradually get worse until a student drops out.  He indicates that many of these students drop out merely because no one was there, whether it be parents, teachers, friends, or school officials, to motivate them to work or try to change their attitudes.  After surveying high school dropouts, Bridgeland believes that the schools could have saved them with higher expectations, more individual attention, and more discipline.  He believes that with appropriate changes in funding and legislation, students could fulfill their potentials.  Bridgeland stresses that drop-outs should not be looked at as students with problems but rather as ones who have not been encouraged to reach their full potential.  I think this article provides a fairly accurate perspective into ways that at-risk students could be helped.  The author does not cite sources for his statistics, but they are generally close to the numbers that are available in other news articles.  With at-risk students likely to be in my own classrooms, it is important for me to show them that someone believes in them by giving them the same high expectations I have for everyone else.

Work cited:

Bridgeland, John M.  “Looking out for dropouts.”  The Washington Times.  26 July 2006:

            A17.