Dropout Solutions
Published on 5/6/2008
About 20 percent of all Georgetown County students who enter the ninth grade don't graduate with their classes from high school. That is slightly better than the state average of 30 percent, but the idea of 32,000 South Carolina students dropping out of the Class of 2007 should send shivers through us all.
According to a study commissioned by members of the Georgetown County Family YMCA, members of the Georgetown County School District and some concerned citizens, high school dropouts are 3.5 times more likely to be arrested and eight times more likely to be incarcerated than high school graduates. A dropout can expect to make from $9,200 to $12,000 less per year than a high school graduate.
To tackle a problem like high school dropouts is to put the Y squarely in the forefront of organizations that deserve people's support.
Amy Brennan, executive director of the local YMCA, knows how to reach teen-agers. She was the first director of the successful youth service group Service Over Self.
A child who begins to fall behind very early in school never catches up. "Success by 6," an effort piloted by the Georgetown County United Way with cooperation of a half-dozen preschools around the county, is attempting to better prepare 4 year olds for public kindergarten.
A program called Personal Pathways for Success is working at the other end of the spectrum, attempting to reach out to Georgetown residents who are age 25 or older who do not have a high school diploma. They are being offered a Fast Track GED through Horry-Georgetown Technical College.
Personal Pathways to Success also involves implementation of the state's Education and Economic Development Act to provide students a relevant education in a field that they choose early in their school years.
Those two programs address the very young and those who already have dropped out of school.
The YMCA and the School District are proposing a mentoring program for those students who can be kept in school.
Their study says the needs of young people are so great today that it takes many more resources than it did decades ago to make a positive difference. Schools and educators simply cannot do it alone. There is a great need for a community of concerned and caring adults to help fill voids that many young people have.
Author Bill Milliken points out: "Programs don't change kids -- relationships do. Every child needs one adult who's irrationally committed to his or her future." Milliken says mentors are the best mechanism to provide a one-on-one, caring relationship with an adult. Mentors may serve as a "bridge" to help connect young people with adults who are willing to listen and be available to them. It also is one of the best ways to overcome differences among people and families throughout communities.
Brian Taylor, lead consultant for the local study, says the decision to drop out is not a one-time, quick decision, but actually evolves over a period of time from "tuning out."
"It is not a clear-cut decision," he says. "Over time, students have lost interest...."
Everything has to work together to prevent a dropout. Georgetown County is on the track of an exciting solution to a bedeviling problem.
To borrow a phrase from the United Negro College Fund: "A mind is a terrible thing to waste."
Let's stop wasting ours.
On 5/25/2008, Bill Betzen said...· (Report Comment)
The dropout cure is to connect students with their own futures. Look at www.studentmotivation.org for the details. This simple, almost free, project is now helping hundreds every year in Dallas to stay in school.
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