“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts,” this is an inspirational quote by Winston Churchill, which can lead as an example to all the students in the United States that have dropped out of high school. According to dosomething. org, the U. S, which had some of the highest graduation rates of any developed country, now ranks 22nd out of 27 developed countries. Stress, low self-esteem, and poor support from family members are all responsible for leading students to dropping out of high school.
However, the United States have been improving in that area and they’ve been efficiently, increasing the number of students that earn a high school diploma. Ultimately, the amount of students that have dropped out of high school has significantly declined due to the fact that many schools have taken the initiative to prepare students for life after college. To begin with, there’s a popular misconception in which people believe that the only reason students drop out is because they aren’t doing too well in school, but it’s much more than that.
Obviously that is part of the reason that they decide to drop out of school, but the consumption of alcohol and other drugs definitely has something to do with it as well. The Encyclopedia of Drugs, Alcohol & Addictive Behavior states, “The findings from the studies that were part of the review suggest that there is a strong link between substance use and dropping out of high school. Not only is it possible that substance use leads to dropping out of school, but also that dropping out of school leads to substance use or an increase in substance use. ” (Korsmeyer 39).
This suggests that not only does the onsumption of drugs lead to dropping out of high school, but vice versa, and this also has a dangerous impact on the health of the students that consume the alcohol. The Encyclopedia of Drugs, Alcohol & Addictive Behavior also notes, “Compared to high school graduates, and in some cases to General Equivalency Diploma holders, dropouts were more likely to have injected a drug recently, and to have a history of injecting drug use. ” (Korsmeyer 39). Consuming alcohol not only puts the students education at risk by leading them to drop out, but puts their life in danger.
Overall, Korsmeyer article highly disagrees with the popular misconception of why students drop out and acknowledges the possibility of substance use as one of the causes that lead students to dropping out. Moreover, on a more positive note, teachers and schools in general have been taking a different course of action on how to prepare students more efficiently for college and ultimately preventing them from dropping out. It is a known fact that the more dedicated and responsible a school is, the more successful they will be in whatever they seek to do with their students.
The Washington Post Company expresses this, “School districts that made the greatest progress closely tracked student academic performance early, not waiting for a student to reach 11th or 12th grade before realizing there was a problem,” (Layton). They figured out the problem before it was too late and managed to solve it. By managing to immensely improve their teaching method they also increased the number of Latinos and people of color that graduate. In Layton’s article it also states, “Students of color are improving faster than white students.
That’s very encouraging. It means we’re closing the gaps. ” This proves that the schools that are changing the way they prepare students for life after high school are not only helping whites dropout race decrease but Latinos and other races as well. Essentially, dropout rates are decreasing and the amount of student that want to go to college is increasing. Furthermore, another reason as to why dropout rates have been decreasing is due to the fact that schools are focusing more on college readiness and what is necessary for their students to get a diploma.
Different states across the United States have added new policies in place with hopes that it would make graduating less demanding. Emma Brown reports in “The Washington Post”, “Alabama, for example, made outsize gains in 2014: Its graduation rate jumped more than six percentage points, the second-biggest increase in the nation. But the increase coincided with a policy change that took hold the same year: Alabama students no longer had to pass a high school exit exam to earn a diploma. ” This concurs with my argument that adding in new policies will give school positive results.
Adjusting college requirements are another method that will also help prevent dropouts and increase the graduation rate. Brown agrees, “Arizona students can earn a standard diploma that requires four courses in math, four in English and three in science, according to Achieve, a nonprofit organization that has studied graduation requirements in each state. But Arizona students also can earn a “Grand Canyon” diploma, which requires just two courses each in math, science and English – less than many colleges require for admission.
This is just an example of many that can make high school less stressful for students and increase their urge of wanting to go to college. To wrap up, college readiness is crucial and essential to focus on if you want to lead students on the right track and avoid having to deal with dropouts. On the other hand, in contrary to my argument there are people that believe high school dropout rates have been increasing instead of decreasing. Their argument is that students drop out to work in jobs such as oil factories because they can earn money quick.
Jennifer Johnson states in “Tribune Business News”, “Fracking jobs are appealing to teenagers because of the immediate payoff of making a lot of money quickly and by increasing expectations of a dropout’s lifetime earnings, but the relative wage boosts have also shown to be temporary, the study stated. ” Although, in some cases this might be true, overall as a country the United States has been progressing and more students graduate high school every year.
Richard Fry indicates, “Just 7% of the nation’s 18-to-24 year olds had dropped out of high school, continuing a steady decline in the nation’s dropout rate since 2000, when 12% of youth were dropouts. ” We haven’t reached one hundred percent efficiency and we will probably never get to that point, but the United States has incredibly been improving in that area. Therefore, due to facts and evidence high school dropout rates in the United States have definitely been decreasing instead of increasing like the counter argument suggests.
