How to Help Kids Stay in School
Kids who drop out of school are at a disadvantage. High school dropouts, on average, earn $9,200 less per year than high school graduates and about $1 million less over a lifetime than college graduates, according to a 2006 report released by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation called "The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives of High School Dropouts." It hurts everybody, as dropouts from the class of 2008 will cost the country nearly $319 billion in lost wages over their lifetimes, the Alliance For Excellence Education reports. While the numbers are daunting, there are ways to encourage kids to stay in school.
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How to Help Kids Stay in School
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Be prepared as a school to help reduce the dropout rate. The National Dropout Prevention Center/Network (NDPC/N) recommends that schools constantly evaluate policies and organizational structures. This includes having a comprehensive violence prevention plan to foster a safe environment. If kids feel threatened, they should stay home. Schools should be up to date with the latest technology like Internet use, according to the NDPC/N.
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Target students early. If you wait until the senior year of high school to address any potential issues, it may be too late. Schools should intervene even before kindergarten to make sure that students have access to a quality preschool program and are ready for kindergarten, according to the National Education Association (NEA). Students should be reading and doing grade-level math by the end of the second grade, according to the NEA. Special education students should be identified based on their disability, not academic performance. There should be a proper transition to middle school and high school through targeted, school-wide interventions with extra support, the NEA recommends.
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Include the family. The NDPC/N said that research has shown that the most accurate predictor for a student's success in school is family engagement. This refers to both the school keeping the parents informed about the child's progress or troubles, as well as the parents' encouraging children to succeed.
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Offer options for the future. Schools should have a career and technology program, the NDPC/N said. That includes career academies, school-registered apprenticeships and student internships.
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Encourage kids to participate in extracurricular activities. The National Endowment for the Arts reports, "For some children, the arts provide the impetus to stay in school until graduation." Other children get mesmerized by sports. School boards and teams have rules that students must maintain a certain grade point average and attendance standard to play. That is enough to motivate kids to attend class.
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Tips & Warnings
Professional sports teams often have programs to encourage children to stay in school. Check your local teams to see if any exist in your area. For example, the Boston Celtics Stay in School program rewards the top 1,000 middle school students in the city with good academic accomplishments and attendance at a celebration. Celtics' players and coaches also give assemblies during the school year for students.
Be careful about labeling special education students. In 2007, one in four special education high school students dropped out. They included a disproportionate number of ethnically, linguistically and racially diverse students who may have been misidentified, according to the NEA.
