California’s Incredible Drop Out Problem

The numbers are downright shocking when looked at in total. According to the data, about 150,000 school age children drop out of the educational system in California every year.
That’s right, every year.

Recent data indicates that only about 70% of all ninth-graders will graduate from high school. In Los Angeles, more than 35,000 students who began as member of the class of 2005 on the first day of ninth grade disappeared from the class before graduation. In some specific school districts the percentage of students who graduate after entering ninth grade is barely 50%.

As a result of dropping out, students face little in the way of a future. With its extraordinary drop out rate, it is no coincidence that Los Angeles is the gang capital of the nation. And perhaps it should be no surprise with the drop out rate that California has the largest prison population in the country. In fact, reportedly more than 80% of the state’s prison population never graduated from high school.

The substantial problem flies under the NCLB radar, where schools are judged upon the test scores their students obtain. NCLB was intended to essentially shame schools that performed poorly by publishing their inadequate test scores.

Instead, the direct consequence is more likely that as school’s ratchet up expectations for its students, the children on the fringes simply struggle more. Without specific programming in place to support these struggling students, they will simply feel even more inadequate about their own academic ability. Difficulty with school leads to lower self-image and soon the ultimate question, “Why am I putting myself through this?”

While the president continues to trumpet the impact of NCLB on minority students, the country needs to understand that the scores of those who remain in school may be increasing ever so slightly. More than likely that increase comes because more and more of the students on the fringes are simply giving up and leaving with out being tested.

California has a major issue that must be solved soon. And because NCLB exacerbates this very problem, the folks in Washington need to take a hard look at true, comprehensive educational reform.