Why is There a Crisis in the Graduation Rate

The America’s Promise Alliance released a report last week, Cities in Crisis, an Analytic Report on High School Graduation. Studies cited in this report indicate that on average only 7 out of 10 students in the USA are successfully finishing high school. In Colorado, the statistics for 2007 graduates, those who started 9th grade and finished with a diploma in 12th grade, was 75% or 7.5 out of 10, which is slightly higher than the national average. One must wonder if the $6,660.00 spent per pupil annually (almost $90,000.00 over the course of a K-12 education!) is a wise investment. With this amount of money being spent, the student should expect to have the knowledge to enter the workforce or to continue in some form of higher education.

Why is the graduation rate in crisis? There may be a myriad of reasons, but three main ones surface as to why students drop out of high school. The most prominent is the fact that many students are ‘curriculum casualties’. Next would be students who are bored with the system because it does not meet their individual needs and the third is a need for income.

If a student has experienced low academic achievement, poor grades, or academic failure as they progress though school, it is likely they will be frustrated and become unengaged since they feel they cannot succeed. Researchers have found that lowered performance in either reading or mathematics tended to increase the likelihood that a student would leave school. Data suggest that failure often begins in elementary school. It is a fact that if a child knows how to read at grade level by the second grade, they are set on a trajectory for success. How many of our high-school students simply drop out due to frustration because they know they were not given the skills to be successful in any content area? How many of these students are what we would call ‘curriculum casualties’ and suffer not from dyslexia, but dysteachea!

Very few middle or high school teachers are prepared to provide the intensive intervention necessary to help these students gain many years growth in a short period of time. In Colorado, we are taking seriously the challenge of having all children reading on grade level by second grade. We have had tremendous success with a No Child Left Behind program called Reading First, which focuses on literacy for K-3 students. Under the excellent leadership of Dr. Deborah Scheffel, we have seen gains in student achievement in some of our most at risk schools. We have taken an aggressive ‘Be sure they succeed’ stance rather than embracing a ‘Wait to fail’ model. Teachers who have been teaching for 20 + years are learning how to use data in the classrooms to drive instruction with research based curriculum. Setting students up for success will dramatically reduce the drop-out rate and increase the graduation rate.

Dropouts report a dislike of and boredom with school. Researchers have found a pattern of absenteeism among dropouts when they were still in school and a low rate of participation in extracurricular activities. Many of our high schools still teach the same way they did 30 years ago. With the acceleration in technology and an increasingly global perspective, we must approach teaching in a 21st Century way. The Graduation Guidelines Council will be presenting findings to the Colorado State Board of Education in May from its inquiries on ‘What a student must know and be able to do upon graduation’. While setting the bar high for all students so that the high school diploma has meaning and worth, we must incorporate ways for students to crave learning, be engaged and find it relevant to their needs.

Some would argue that high school dropouts tend to belong to families of low socioeconomic status. They would say that a need for money and a desire to work full time it the factor that is decisive for a dropout. Is the high school graduation rate tied simply to where a student lives or to the socioeconomic status of the family? Research would indicate that those students who are offered the opportunity to attend schools that implement research based literacy curriculum in K-3 that is taught with fidelity, and a school where there are high expectations, do very well and succeed in the upper grades. There are many success stories of low income students who have excelled. Their schools had leaders who defined expectations for quality and teachers who were dedicated to ensuring mastery of content, so that students remained engaged in school and participated in extra-curricular activities.

The Colorado State Board of Education and the Department of Education are currently reviewing all standards and will be updating assessment to align with those standards. We are looking at assessing content mastery in high school with some form of end-of-course exams that will take the focus off of seat time served and ensure that students progress by mastery of content. This will challenge some educators as they will now personally be accountable to make sure students understand the content before moving on to the next level. Some students may progress more rapidly than others, so we will see schools where there are classes with multiple age levels. There will be an increased use of online courses for intervention, with supplemental and challenging material so that students are engaged. The graduation requirements will be high for all students. Excuses will not be tolerated. Parents will be encouraged to become more engaged. I would encourage all parents to be diligent, to be advocates for their children. Their future success depends on it!

About Peggy Littleton: Peggy Littleton has served on the State Board of Education since Feb. 2004. Her involvement in education spans many years. She taught for 15 years in a variety of educational settings, including home-schooling her three children and serving as a faculty member at Cheyenne Mountain Charter Academy and Colorado Springs Christian School. She was also appointed as the director for Colorado’s GEAR UP grant, which was administered by the office of Governor Bill Owens.

In her extensive experience as an educational consultant, Peggy has conducted professional staff development seminars for teachers nationwide. Her focus is training teachers to use both data-driven and differentiated instruction in the classroom. Her passion is literacy, for she believes that a child must learn to read in grades K-3 in order to best prepare them for a lifetime of learning. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree from the Regents University of New York and has numerous graduate hours in literacy and education.

Peggy serves on many boards and commissions, including Read to Achieve, The Dyslexia Center and PACE (Parental Alliance for Choice in Education). Of the awards she has received, she feels most honored to have been given the Charter Friend Award for Policy. Peggy has contributed to many reports published by NASBE, some of which are “E Pluribus Unum (ELL)”, “Adolescent Literacy” and “From Planning to Practice (ECE).”

In addition to serving on the state board, Peggy is a commercial real estate consultant in Colorado Springs. She and her husband, Don, are the proud parents of three grown children.