Critical Crisis
Estimates peg the high school dropout rate at 20,000 every year in Michigan, exacting heavy tolls on the state’s economy and the lives of students and families everywhere. MEA is leading efforts to tackle the dropout problem.
Teachers Alisha Martin and Paul Dickinson helped James Alexander complete his graduation requirements at the Godwin Learning Center.
Many people told James Alexander to stay in school until graduation.
But their refrain of encouragement didn’t resonate. He heard his parents, teachers and others say he’d need a diploma to get a good job or to go to college. It seemed logical enough. He simply couldn’t picture himself pulling it off.
“It was like a fantasy,” recalls Alexander, who dropped out of the Godwin Learning Center in Wyoming, an alternative program for at-risk youth. “It’s like saying you can fly.”
One could say Alexander’s dreams never attained liftoff. Surrounded by negative influences, Alexander couldn’t imagine going to college or getting a job with a good salary.
“What I’m exposed to is the wrong side of the law,” he says. “I can see 10 or 12 laws being broken every day. It’s what I’m used to. It’s just like the sun is shining. I see a person on the corner, selling drugs, driving fancy cars. You don’t see this professor coming down and talking to you. That’s not what I’m exposed to.”
Today, former high school dropout James Alexander mentors at-risk teens and is a college student studying to be a teacher.
Until one day last year, a teacher did come to talk. And he brought good news.
Paul Dickinson, a math teacher and basketball coach at the Godwin Learning Center, went to see Alexander, who had dropped out over questions about his transcripts.
The school had resolved the transcript problems, Dickinson said, clearing the way for Alexander to resume his high school career.
Alexander was in class the very next day—and he stayed until graduation, even speaking at his commencement ceremony. A year later, he’s a mentor for other at-risk teens and a college student studying to be a teacher.
“I consider him one of my best success stories,” Dickinson says.
Measuring the economic impact
Not all dropout stories end as well.
In Michigan, thousands of people leave school before earning a diploma. Data is unreliable, but some estimates peg the number of students who drop out each year at about 20,000. Nationwide, the problem is estimated to exceed 500,000 students a year.
In addition to the huge personal toll of the dropout problem, the economic impact to society is measurable. Research from Columbia University’s prestigious Teachers College shows that boosting high school graduation rates would save $127,000 per new graduate through extra tax revenues, reduced costs of public health, crime and justice, and decreased welfare payments.
“If we don’t find a way to keep young people in school, we’re sentencing them to a life of poverty,” says Ron Koehler, assistant superintendent of the Kent Intermediate School District.
Added MEA President Iris K. Salters, a special education teacher: “One dropout is too many.”
Focusing on the crisis
Renewed efforts on multiple fronts aim to put the dropout crisis on the public’s radar.
Ten MEA-sponsored public hearings around the state this year will collect input about the dropout problem as well as possible solutions (see accompanying story on page 9). The hearings will lead to the Michigan Dropout Prevention Leadership Summit on Oct. 20 in Lansing.
In Lansing, lawmakers and Gov. Jennifer Granholm are discussing ways to keep more students in school but are not addressing reasons why students drop out.
Major challenges ahead
Educators who work with students at risk of dropping out, as well as those who’ve dropped out and later returned to school, say the unique needs of their students make solving the dropout problem a challenge.
“Too often, we give up on these kids and we try to pound them all into the same hole,” says Kathy McKnight, who works at Mott Adult High School in Flint.
There’s no single reason that causes a student to drop out, she said.
Dropouts may be orphans, or they may be parents themselves. They may be very poor and need to work to support themselves. Their academic performance may lag behind—or, it may be so advanced that school isn’t a challenge.
Teacher Sue Doneson, who works at an alternative program in Haslett, said at-risk students need academic rigor in a flexible setting to serve the needs of a range of students.
“If you’ve never taught kids who are homeless, it’s hard to understand why they can’t concentrate in a traditional classroom,” said Doneson, who has spent much of her 39-year career working with at-risk students. “Why can’t they tend to the business at hand? They may be thinking, ‘Is it going to hit freezing tonight? Am I going to be warm enough?’ It’s easy for certain kinds of kids to become invisible.”
Raising the stakes
New curriculum requirements for high schoolers have added pressure for students—and increased frustration for some schools—as both try to squeeze in rigorous coursework.
As the stakes are raised, some students may be more likely to drop out, teachers said, which is why it’s important to understand the scope of the problem as well as sustainable solutions.
Teachers and support staff play an important role in keeping students in school, but they aren’t alone. Parents, grandparents, business leaders and others also are stakeholders.
What we’re doing is not working
People like Pam Faunce, the only attendance secretary at Jackson High School, are on the front lines of the dropout crisis. The process of tracking students—and getting them back in school—is painfully slow, she said.
“What we’re doing is not working,” Faunce said. “…I don’t think the problem is talked about like it should be…I’m frustrated with the fact that I can’t save all these kids.” Often, students turn 16 before anything is done, which limits intervention by a truancy or court officer, she said.
For Alexander, the student who dropped out twice before graduating, a simple knock on his door one day opened doors that he thought had closed permanently. At his graduation ceremony last year, he stood up to praise his fellow graduates.
“You never think you can make it,” he told them. “You think it’s never going to happen. Well, we did all this hard work. We’re here. We made it.”
Send us your testimony on dropout crisis
MEA welcomes comments and testimony from members and students who can’t attend one of the public hearings on Michigan’s dropout crisis.
Submit your comments on how the dropout crisis impacts schools, students, families, crime and the economy at www.mea.org/dropouts.
Your testimony will be included in findings that will be presented to political leaders and the public at the Michigan Dropout Prevention Leadership Summit on Oct. 20 in Lansing.