American Schools

American Schools in Crisis

American schools have a big problem on their hands and that would be keeping kids in the classroom. Year after year students are failing to graduate and deciding to drop out of school. The reasons for this are far and in-between, but actions need to be taken so that this no longer happens. Staying in school is the only way to success unless you are extremely lucky. Higher levels of education can only help you in your future. As little fun as school is students need to fight their way through because there is a light at the end of the tunnel. That shining light is a bright future with success in anything you want.

The dropout rates over the years have seen little or no movement in numbers. Students are continually deciding they want to leave school for whatever reason. They think this is the right way to go but they are wrong. Action needs to take place in order to take a hold of this situation and so graduation rates can begin to incline.

Most recently the main man in our government decided to take action into his own hands. He also sees the current problem in our nation's academic system. However, he doesn't really know how to approach the situation. In a recent article in TIME magazine titled Dropout Nation written by Nathan Thornburgh touched on this. Thornburgh said:

"During his most recent State of the Union address, President George W. Bush promised more resources to help children stay in school, and Democrats promptly attacked him for lacking a specific plan"(Thornburgh "Dropout Nation").

The idea he came up is one that will definitely help the situation. President Bush feels that no student should be able to be left behind. This is a great way to begin to attack this problem. If no child can be left back then students would feel more confident about attending school. However, there should be some standards and limitations placed on this. Not just any student should be allowed to proceed in school. They should have to a great deal of effort and if they still aren't doing well then they should be rewarded for their hard work. On the other hand if a student is showing no effort and not showing up they shouldn't be rewarded by moving to the next grade. But hopefully the thought of just trying as hard as they can will motivate them enough to stay in school.

The first step towards success is identifying the problem, and this problem has been identified by many. The reason for people beginning to see the problem is because of the staggering numbers. "Over recent years researchers are saying that one in every three public high school students are dropping out of school and this only grows higher if you are a minority jumping from 33 percent to nearly 50 percent"(Thornburgh).

These numbers only grow higher and higher as you reach certain geographic areas in the United States. For example, Jonathan Kozol speaks on this topic in piece of writing titled Savage Inequalities. He writes from a high minority high school set in the middle of the Bronx. The students attending this high school aren't the brightest kids, yet they should still be in school trying to excel. In this story Kozol gives us staggering information that he found:

"The class of 1998 began with 465 students who were classified as entering ninth grade in 1994. Of these only 66 received diplomas in 1998, 120 did not graduate but remained enrolled, 54 were listed as dropouts and 225 were listed as discharged"(Kozol 340).

The schools that are in the rough areas need to try even harder than the rest of the society. The students attending high schools like this are either kids that can't stay out of trouble or kids that aren't too smart. Even though these are harder situations there can still be action taken.

Such action could be implementing learning programs in these schools. For example, in these schools they can have special programs for underachieving students. They can have classes dedicated to just students that have difficulty learning. In these classes they would have teachers that work at a slower pace so that they all can understand. They can also have AP classes to help students earn some credits for college. Also another big problem in these types of schools is attendance. Many kids would much rather stay home or on the streets getting into trouble. But if they reward these students for attending class much more of them would decide to come to, school. Even if they are only getting a few points here and there, they would show up. The goal of teachers should be to help students pass and want to come to school not just barely squeeze. Making changes in these lower level high schools will help the improvement of these very poor graduation rates.

Another thing to help students graduate is to balance out the schools systems. These days there are high schools that only accept well educated students. There is no problem in this; however they should not accept students so easily. If all the smart students attend these private schools then all of the less smart kids will be forced to attend worse institutions. Granted, not all smart students can afford to attend these private schools but if those schools declined more students trying to get in, then they would be forced to attend less smart high schools. If these students that should normally be attending these better high schools attend lower one then their graduation rates would begin to rise. Balancing out these schools systems is a great way to get dropout rates to cease. Forcing smarter kids to attend