High Dropout Rates in the United Sates - Research Paper Example

High Dropout Rates in the United Sates Table of Contents High Dropout Rates in the United s 3 Assessment 3 Literature Review 5 Implementation 8 Role of the states 8 Role of the schools 9 Measure 10 Reinforce 11 Implementation 11 Reinforcer 12 Evaluation 13 Summary 14 Conclusion 15 References 16 High Dropout Rates in the United States The American high schools face a crisis with high dropout rates of students who failed to graduate with high school diploma. Only about half of the students who join schools graduate after having successfully completed the curriculum requirements. On the other hand, statistics shows that 1.3 million students in the class of 2010 who could not meet their goals and get the diploma. This is especially in high schools where most of the students do not attain their graduation as they drop out before the completion of their studies. There are many reasons beyond this problems that force students to leave school; such as the lack of motivation and the lack of social and academic engagements. This paper is to explore the extent to which the United States has been faced with this problem, the reasons contributing, the trend in the dropout rates, the methods of measurements of milestones reached and the amicable solutions that can be adapted to reduce the high number of high school dropouts(WestEd, 2004). Assessment The United States must make more efforts to prevent the students from dropping out from the school. America must be more commitment to this crisis by raising the educational attainment of its students. This problem does not only affect the students, but also affects schools, communities and the whole nation. Statistics released by various non-governmental organizations and governmental departments clearly indicate that in the recent past there has been a high dropout rate in American schools, especially in high schools. According to a report released by the Department of Education, there is high dropout rate of students, with minority groups recording the highest rates. According to the report, about 31% of Native Americans, 28% pacific islanders, 41% African-American students and 30% Hispanics drop out of school before the completion of their studies. Asians and the whites record a lower dropout rate of approximately 10% and 15% respectively. The high rate of dropout in high schools, in colleges and in the university is a clear indication of the problem that the United States will face in meeting its needs. The United States will experience a shortage of professionals in the coming four years resulting to importing of expatriates therefore costing the country dearly. If the rate of school drop outs is not reversed, the country will face challenges in economic advancements. The US country would save up to $45 billion annually, if it reduced the dropout rate in half. Moreover, studies shows that students who dropped out would earn only 60% of what high school graduates earn. In other word, there is a relationship between increased earning and completing high educational levels. The country at large will be handicapped on meeting the citizens’ needs. This is particularly so where services to be delivered to the citizens require professionalism in administration. These include services provided by teachers, engineers, doctors, accountants and economists among others (Patrcia, 2008). Therefore, the United States struggles with high dropout rate, New Hampshire designs many strategies to reduce the states dropout rate by 20% by 2009. New Hampshire realized the problem and tried to help students with emotional and behavioral challenges. The school tries to identify students who have don’t feel fit in at school at a very early point. Then, School tries to connect with these students before they drop out by looking beyond many factors that affect students style life like personal challenges or low income status. Teachers at school, provide students with positive support in all areas which has a significant impact on students. Interventions in New Hampshire are designed to help students with emotional disabilities in improving their life inside and outside the school. This program in New Hampshire has been effective in helping students because they identify early who need help and prevent them from leaving school and stay on track. Literature Review In the recent years, California schools in the United States have registered high rates of dropout particularly among African-Americans. As result of many factors, this has raised the concerns of many of the parties involved in the education sector. These parties include government agencies departments, and the non- governmental organizations. The revelation of the high dropouts in schools has led to a research being carried out through cooperation and collaboration of the various agencies to investigate the trends, reasons behind this problem and how this can be curbed and reduced. Government has instituted a four year research to study the trends of the high dropout rates, establish the reasons behind the trend, investigate the efforts to reverse the trend, and come up with amicable recommendations to solve this problem. According to previously carried out research, there is difference in the rates of dropouts among the various races. Race distribution in any Californian school determines the rate of drop out the school will experience over time. High dropout rates are recorded among the minorities with African-American recording the highest rates. Whites and Asians have in the past recorded the lowest rates of dropout from schools. This is because of reasons associated with the background of the students, parental expectations, and faculty expectations. The expectations held of the student by the society at large either demoralize or motivate the students in pursuit of their education. Different racial groups have different ways of motivating themselves and gain different motivation levels from the different activities carried out (Kqed, 2008). In the years 2007-2008, over two million students registered as high school students. In this period, the country recorded a 20% dropout rate, a slight decrease from the previous year according to Kqed (2008). This summed up to over 106,000 students who dropped out of schools. Over the years, the number adds up to overwhelming numbers (Kqed, 2008). There is higher likelihood of unemployment and incarceration of those who dropped out of school, compared to those who graduated. This is a further indication of problems to arise in the future if the situation is not improved or the necessary measurements are not put in place to correct the trend. Statistics indicate that most of the drop outs satisfy the majority part of the curriculum except the exit exam (Clmsneuedu, 2009). Several factors have been contributed to this trend, key among them being transparency and discipline level in academic institutions. Investigations reveal that with more discipline and transparency in schools, the minority groups will be motivated to stay in schools and complete their studies. Poor performance in class is also listed as one of the major factors, with students performing poorly in classes having a higher likelihood of dropping out of the academic system. Previous statistics also reveal that the relationships between the students and the teachers have highly contributed to the increase in the dropout rates. Prior preparation by the students in the previous academic level determines how the students pursue the current academic level, thus increasing the percentage likely dropout of school (Stern, 1986). The expectation of performance at the faculty level has directly or indirectly influenced the decision of the students to drop out of schools. Generally, Asians are expected to perform better, and better performance is an indication of an increased motivation level in pursuit of education. The expectations by the faculty, over time, evolve into self deprecating remarks contributing to high academic performance in favor of the Asians and low academic achievements to the minority groups. Asians are expected to graduate, continue with their pursuit for education in science, mathematics, engineering or biological fields, while African- American and Latinos are expected to join gangs, get pregnant and drop out of school. For there to be tremendous changes in the society especially the economy, there has to be changes in attitude in the academic sector (Cdrpucsbedu, 2009). Implementation For many years, people think that the high dropout rate is an education crisis. The problem is not just education system, but involves schools, teachers, communities, and the entire nation. All of them need to collaborate together to shape the lives of the of America’s young people. They are all integral to students success. However, education systems in every state, schools and educators can use the lean management to improve students performance and reduce the high dropout rate meanwhile, saving costs. The implementation of the lean management involves the role of the states and the role of the school. Role of the states The role of the states is to address the high drop crisis by understanding the nature of the problem. Every state should plan to develop high schools standards by using the lean management process. Lean process focuses on improving the students performance with less cost. The state also should define its goals clearly and ensure that schools have the capacity to achieve them. Afterwards, the states should make pressure on schools to implement the new process. Moreover, states should require annual improvement of reduction. The states also mentor schools and their effectiveness in improving dropout and the students outcome. However, the states should have a vision for the future to help schools in achieving their goals for reducing the high dropout rates. Role of the schools The role of the schools is to implement the states plan and in reducing the high dropout rate. Schools in each state should empower each worker in a school system to support students in increasing their personal performance. Schools play a key role in supporting students to be successful in their lives. Teachers at schools need to understand students needs and their academic and social problems. The teachers should maintain strong relationships with students because programs don’t change kids, but relations do. Moreover, teachers should help students to improve their skills and behaviors and to increase student engagement. Research on effective teaching in high school finds that it must be: challenging and focused on disciplinary knowledge and conceptual understanding. It needs to be relevant to and build on students’ cultural backgrounds and personal experiences, and provide opportunities for students to engage in authentic tasks that have meaning in the world outside of school. Engaging instruction gives students multiple learning modalities to master material and represents their knowledge, and allows them to draw on their native language and other resources. This kind of teaching is not possible if teachers do not have a deep understanding of their subject matter, of how people learn, and of how to address students’ developmental needs. Most successful dropout prevention programs are based on establishing strong relationship between students and their teachers. However, Schools can easily affect the students engagements to school by creating the suitable environment. Measure The Federal and the State Governments have spent approximately $9 billion during the year 2003 to 2008 on the students who have been dropped out of college during the first session (Kelderman, 2010). Mark S. Schneider, vice president of human department, education and the work force at the American Institute for Research said the amount spent was not a huge expenditure on higher education, but it is still considered a high cost for being unsuccessful in keeping the students in college. The Federal Government initiated the measures through the Prevention and Intervention Programs for Children and Youth who are delinquent, neglected, or at-risk. Under Section 1401, it states that, for the prevention of risk for youths from being dropped out of schools; and children those who are returning from the correctional facilities; or children those who are neglected will be provided a support system to guarantee that their education is continued. After Section 1401 was implemented, Section 1402 was planned. It states that the program will be implemented through Agency and Local sub-grants (US Department of Education, n.d.) The Payment Programs under the section 1402 states that they are to be allocated in two divisions: (a) Agency Sub-grants: Under section 1412, the Secretary will allocate to each States Education agency an amount that is essential to provide sub-grants to State agencies. (b) Local Sub-grants: Every State will save the amounts for the purpose of carrying out the program of the government. The funds generated throughout the state under the acts of the education system of the US Government is to be used for children and youth who are residing in local correctional homes, or attending community day programs. They are also part of the education system and have the right to be educated (US Department of Education, n.d.) Reinforce The reinforcement to the section is the initiative that the Federal Government had taken. To ensure that the funds are allocated at the state and local level of schools for retention of students, they need to judiciously assign those funds. The usage of funds needs to be accountable for the Government. The policy and programs that are developed by the Government of the United States of America are to be followed in different provinces and local levels for the reason to increase the reach of education system and see there is a decrease in the dropout rates. There are many programs that have been introduced and funded too for the purpose to decline the dropout rate. But due to lack of fund allocation the program is not being fully successful in implementation and there is shortage in the development of the education system in order to increase the level of retaining the students. Implementation The Lean Management can be implemented to improve the quality of education and focus upon the students that will reduce the dropout and help in increasing the enrollment of students. To decrease the dropout rates in education system, the best possible way to improve the situation is through Lean management. The purpose of implementing this program is its uniqueness in application. It is a continuous process that can be evaluated and measured. Necessary measures can be taken to modify the approach according to the situation and need. In the lean management process of every department, employees of every level are taken to improve the process that makes it possible to deliver a better education service. Through Plan-Do-Check-Act improvements are initiated on continuous basis and can be applied to every aspect of operations in the schools. Lean school culture will help in promoting ‘can do’ attitude with maximum involvement and vested possession in improving the process that will support students’ learning (Ziskovsky & Ziskovsky, 2007). Reinforcer The application of the Lean Management program is achievable through strong leadership. Every school leaders must be completely committed towards the program and constantly illustrate this through their own personal concern in the continuous improvement process. This will help the Lean Management program to result in improvement. The program can be successful only through the active participation level towards the lean efforts in the education institutes by the leaders. The initiative taken by the leaders of the education system will be an example to demonstrate the affectivity and efficiency of the program. They will provide the guidelines for the implementation of the program at every level of the education system. Evaluation Through the Value Stream Mapping (VSM) Process the evaluation of the program can be conducted. The VSM is the measuring tool for the current stage and the future stage. By understating the future requirements and improvements necessary plans are implemented to improve the overall system. There is a gap between the present situation and the future situation or future requirements. To cover the gap there must be certain measures that can evaluate the current situation and take maximum advantage and create a better future. The increasing trend in the dropout rates need to be decreased in future. For this purpose the current situation is required to be analyzed in order to find out what is wrong in the process and why the students are dropping out. According to the analysis of various variables that have been the cause for the dropouts in the present days, the future dropouts can be minimized. This process will create the understanding of the present stage and the future requirements that will be easy to implement strategy towards the dropout students. In this way there will be higher opportunities in future to reduce the level of dropout rates. The changing educational environment and the government policy towards the dropout can be incorporated in the system and implement new developed plans to improve the mechanism (MTech, n.d.). Through the VSM application the individual effort can be measured and the group attempts can be evaluated. In the education system of the different states, the VSM process will be helpful in evaluating the level of efforts and attempts in order to decrease the dropout rates. It will provide the ability of different states towards the dropout and help in developing programs and funds for dropouts in different states. Summary There has been huge number of dropout in the US and the Federal Government has taken many initiative programs and deployed huge funds at State and Local levels in order to reduce the dropout rates. The funds employment and program will not be sufficient enough to solve the problem. For this purpose they should know the students background and the causes. They need to develop a culture for the programs to ensure that there is incessant improvement. This is possible through the Lean management program that will ensure the success. It is possible to make the program effective with the help of the government of the US and apply this on a broader scale at national, state and local levels. There are fund allocations at different levels but it is not adequate enough and the programs for reducing the dropout rates have been ineffective. For this purpose another measure like the lean management techniques can be implemented in order to develop the culture of lean management in all education systems. Conclusion The proposed program of lean management will be able to solve the problem as it is known to be a continuous improvement program through its various tools. These techniques have been implemented in many industries and have shown positive results and are an ongoing process. The level of success in other industries has a positive impact to solve this problem too. This is the first time that the lean management has been recommended. Prior to this the program was not applied in the education system. But this management is applicable in different sectors such as manufacturing, service industries and many more. It has been implemented to solve many problems in these sectors and has achieved considerable success. So for the dropout rates to be reduced the lean management program is best suited that will be able to reduce the dropout rates. References Cdrp.ucsb.edu (2009), Students Discuss their Challenges with School, retrieved on 28th September 2010 from http://www.cdrp.ucsb.edu/ Clms.neu.edu (2009), Left Behind In America: The Nation’s Dropout Crisis, Retrieved on 28th September 2010 from www.clms.neu.edu/publication/.../CLMS_2009_Dropout_Report.pdf Kqed.org (2008), California High School Dropout Rate, retrieved on 28th September 2010 from http://www.kqed.org/a/forum/R807180900. Kelderman, E., (2010). College Dropout Cost Taxpayers Billions. retrieved on 28th September 2010 from http://collegemeasures.org/category/This-site-in-the-news.aspx MTech, No Date. Lean Management. retrieved on 28th September 2010 from http://www.erc.umd.edu/ummap/services/docs/developing_lean_culture.pdf Patrcia D. C. (2008), High School Dropouts, Enrollment, and Graduation Rates in California, retrieved on 28th September 2010 from http://www.unitedwayla.org/getinformed/rr/datalinks/education/Pages/Page110.aspx. Stern, D. (1986), Reducing the high school dropout rate in California: why we should and how we may, Berkeley, California Policy Seminar. US Department of Education, (No Date). Elementary & Secondary Education. retrieved on 28th September 2010 from http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/pg9.html WestEd (2004), California’s Graduation rate, retrieved on 28th September 2010 from www.wested.org/online_pubs/cde.gradrateII.pdf Ziskovsky, B & Ziskovsky, J., (2007). Doing More with Less –Going Lean in Education. retrieved Online on December 14, 2010 from http://www.leaneducation.com/whitepaper-DoingMoreWithLess.pdf Read More