New Report Details High School Dropout Prevention Efforts

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First the good news from this report: 80 percent of high schools are engaged in some form of dropout prevention. Now the not-so-good news from the same document: Only about one-third of schools are engaged in meaningful attempts to recruit dropouts back to school. By some estimates, up to 1.2 million students will drop out of school this year. We can’t address the dropout epidemic by prevention alone.

nodropouts of UT 2:13PM October 05, 2011

Approximately 8 in 10 high schools offer dropout prevention services. That’s great news, but what happens when students do drop out? According to this report, only 36 percent of districts make an effort to get their dropouts to return to school. That’s absolutely unconscionable — and sadly, not very surprising. At The American Academy, we partner with school districts across the nation to re-enroll dropouts into flexible and supportive high school environments. And when we contact these students, they’re often shocked to hear from us — because many haven’t heard from a single concerned adult since dropping out. As it turns out, just knowing that someone cares about whether or not they finish high school is often enough to convince them to try again. The rest is hard work — for them and for us — but it’s worth it.

nodropouts of UT 3:34PM October 03, 2011