Why People Are Failing In High School Education Essay

Why People Are Failing In High School Education Essay Over the years, plenty of teenagers have had problems in a high school environment. Researchers have been getting statistics from all over the country to determine the amount of people dropping out of school or just failing in general. This topic has been an issue for many years. The percentages of high school dropouts have gone up and gone down. Most will say though that it is usually on the negative end. This is a huge problem and there has to be something done about it quick. The majority of dropouts come from a low income family. They need to provide for their family financially instead of opening a book. That is not the reason for everyone though. This research is going to explain the percentages and major reasons for students failing in a high school. Stay tuned. Failing in High School 1 Why are People Failing in High School? The Facts are here There are a lot of students that succeed in a high school environment and go off to a great university to find out what they want to achieve in their lives. However, not every student is blessed with the luxury to go to college or even finish high school. There are plenty of reasons on why students dont graduate from high school. Based on my research, the majority of the students that fail in a high school environment come from a low income family. These students fail because of having to deal with their families financial problems as well as being a part of an environment that is surrounded by negativity. We need to set goals for our children and help them grow as people. If we can do that, our future can look brighter and more positive. The following information will be exploring this huge problem. Can we find a solution towards the following facts? The students that drop out of high school are all types of races. The majority of the high school dropouts are black, Hispanic, or American Indian. The teenagers that are a part of these races generally live in the poorest parts of our economy. That is one of the main reasons why they fail. More Asians and whites graduate with a diploma and on time. Males are also less likely to graduate then females. All kinds of people of certain races drop out of high school. Basically, the students that dropout are the students who come from the gutter and arent given the right direction to succeed. Students drop out of high school for different reasons. Some get kicked out of school for fighting and get expelled for good. Some students get pregnant and have to deal with that instead. Then the father of that child may have to get a full time job and drop out of high school to support his child. Another reason may be because a certain student is having trouble keeping up with the school work. Some people tend to quit when they feel they are failing. That is where the parents need to come in. The kids that are a part of families with a low income have it the worst. I say that because they did not ask to be a part of that kind of environment. These types of students struggle through school because they need to help their parents by getting jobs to help the family and dont have time to go to school. They need to make money now. Being a part of a low income family and around poverty is not easy at all. It makes you angry and irritated. You are constantly around drugs, gangs, dope hea ds, pimps, drug dealers, and more. That is a lot of negativity to be around and when a teenager sees that, he or she may want to become a part of that lifestyle. Those types of lifestyles do not involve school and the future of your education. Those types of street professions involve making money and that is Failing in High School 2 why the low income parents tell their kids to go do that kind of illegal activity. A kid that comes from poverty may even decide for them self to make money on the street. It isnt always just the parents. They see it as easy money and also think to themselves that sitting in a classroom is pointless if I am making money now. Some of the parents that have a low income and are living in the projects do drugs or drink alcohol on a daily basis. When their kid sees that, he or she may want to start doing drugs also. Drugs will make kids lazy and not want to do anything. Certain drugs can effect a students motivation to succeed. Is Money Really That Important? A lot of those problems that I have just mentioned have to deal with people that are a part of a low income family. As I said earlier, that is the main focus on why students fail. They are surrounded by filth. A lot of people that are a part of poverty are nice and good hearted. They just have to do certain things because of the environment that surrounds them. I found some research concerning this problem. In 2005, the event dropout rate for students living in low-income families was approximately six times greater than the rate of their peers from high-income families (8.9 percent compared with 1.5 percent). Students from low-, middle-, and high-income families experienced an overall decline in event dropout rates during the three-decade period of the mid-1970s through 2005, including a downward trend during the first half of that period (1975 to 1990). From 1990 to 1995, students from low-income families experienced an upward trend in rates, while their peers from middle- and high -income families experienced no significant change. In the last decade (1995-2005), the event rates for low-income groups trended downwards, a trend not found among students from middle- and high-income families { National Center for Education Statistics, 2009, pg.1-2}. That was good information that was provided by the NCES. What this information tells me is that we need to make some serious changes and it makes me sick that money is the reason for some students not having the same chance to succeed. The main purpose for an education is to make money in the future. Some of these parents are basically telling their kids that they have to live by the day. They cant live and think about their future. That is not fair for a kid that has dreams and has the potential to succeed. Some of the parents did this to Failing in High School 3 themselves. They waste their own money on drugs and bring themselves down. The kids see that and may start living that life in the near future. Hopefully for our futures sake, we can start bringing hope to these kids and explain to them that an education is the most important thing to receive when you are a teenager. Who Are the Students That Fail In a High School Environment? The study found that seven in 10 students graduate from high school with a regular diploma. But about half of American Indian and black students graduate, compared with more than three-quarters of non Hispanic whites and Asians. The Hispanic graduation rate is 55.6%. Male students are consistently less likely to graduate than females, a pattern than can be found across every racial and ethnic group examined, according to the report { Report:1.2 Million Students Fail to Graduate High School, NSTA, Kristin Collins, 2006, p.3} Blacks and Hispanics have the highest rate not to graduate from high school. These two races also have the highest rate of being a part of a low income family. Trying to Make a Change Another resource that I found concerning this topic was in the Axia student library. This article is called Examining the high school dropout rate among African American and Hispanic students. The focus of this study was the problem of the high dropout rate among African American and Hispanic students enrolled in Westchester, New York, high schools during the 2003-2004 school year. A mixed method was used to collect data in this study. The 90 participants consisted of minority and nonminority high school students who had dropped out of school or who were still in high school as well as teachers, administrators, and parents from the Westchester high school districts in New York State. One group consisted of high school dropouts between 14 and 21 years old and potential high school dropout students between 14 and 21 years old with a grade point average below 2.0. The second group included parents, and the third group consisted of teachers/staff. The study was designed to establish the factors that contribute to the dropout rate among African American and Hispanic students enrolled in Westchester high schools. The results of the study showed that students who dropped out of Failing in High School 4 high school were influenced by socio-cultural, educational, and economic factors. The findings in this study helped identify specific factors that contribute to a higher incidence of dropping out of inner city high schools today to support a best practices approach. This approach included a profile for failure for African American and Hispanic students that can lead to the development of alternative strategies and an academic support plan for this at-risk group of students to help reduce the dropout rate in the urban high schools in Westchester, New York {Digneo, Mriam L., NorthcentralUniversity, 2009, pg 1}. A support plan can be a great help to these people. We need to start somewhere. This author gives a perfect example on certain races that are being affected by poverty and is trying to show that we are creating a strategy to change. Which City Has the Worst Graduation Rate? Another report from Kristen Collins was this, The report found that graduation rates vary widely across the nations largest school districts. For example, the graduation rate in Fairfax County, Virginia, (the nations 14th largest school district) was 82.5% while the Detroit public school system (the nations 11th largest school district) had a rate of 21.7% {Kristin Collins, NSTA, 2009, pg 4}. Those statistics scare me. I live in Michigan and I know how Detroit is. It would be a horrible place to live in some parts. It is nice though in certain areas. However, a graduation rate of 21.7% for a city that has the 11th largest school district in the nation is pathetic and embarrassing. The city of Detroit does have a lot of families that make a low amount of income. There is a lot of poverty out in that city and changes are trying to be made. This rate needs to change or else are future is in turmoil. No one in that city is being educated and the teachers have a lot to do with that also. The parents not caring whether or not their children go to school is a factor as well. Being a part of poverty is depressing and can stop someone of becoming who they were meant to become. Poverty Can Lead to a Variety of Things In Detroit and all over the world, there is a lot of violence and people joining gangs as well. If you fight in school, that is usually an automatic suspension and sometimes it can lead to getting kicked out of school for good. The majority of people who become a part of gangs come from a low income family. They join the gang and eventually start selling drugs, killing people, hurting people, and more. This can lead to that student dying themselves. Its just like a pattern. It keeps happening every day and we need to make a change. Forty-eight percent of all late high school dropouts come from families in the lowest quarter (bottom 25 percent) of the socioeconomic status distribution, and 77 percent of late high school dropouts come from the lowest half of the socioeconomic status distribution {Late High School Dropouts; Characteristics, Experiences, and Changes Across Cohorts, Ben Dalton, Elizabeth Glennie, Steven J. Ingels, 2009, pg 1}. It is no secret that money rules the world. I t is a shame as well. The Failing in High school 5 students that are a part of this economy should have just as good of opportunity to succeed as anyone else. We need to help these families in some possible way. Motion creates emotion. What can be done about these problems is very little. When it comes down to it, the student is in control of his or her own life. They have to put into their mind that they do not want to be around poverty forever. They want to create a change and education is the ticket for that. It may take time, but it will be worth it in the long run. These kids need to start thinking about the future and not just today. There is very little that we can do, but it could be enough to improve some students lives. We need the parents to motivate their children and stop caring about when their next buzz is going to come. That will help also. Poverty leads teens to think too much about the rich and famous also. They start to imitate what they see on T.V. and from rappers and it leads to negativity. It is very important to address this problem because our countries future is depending on it. As I said earlier, most people that dont have an education turn out to be bums, drug dealers, prostitutes and so on. There are some people that do succeed without a high school diploma. It is rare though. Those people are usually Hollywood stars, rap stars, or lottery winners. After finding all this research, I have realized that our country is going to have more problems as the years go by. There are too many people without an education and it already has caught up to us. If the population keeps growing, there will be chaos all over the country. We need to come up with a plan. A specific approach towards all these problems that create students failing in high school needs to be thought of. The kids of today will have to take care of us someday. Remember that. Failing in High School 6