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EducationIntroduction
With thousands of students dropping out each day, the dropout crisis is one of the most troubling issues facing schools in the United States. During this session, you will be asked to identify what might lead you or your fellow students to leave school and to propose specific changes to lower dropout rates at the imaginary Enchantment High. What is Going On At "Enchantment High"? There are some extremely serious problems at Enchantment High, which has an enrollment of almost 2,000 students and provides a wide range of classes and programs for students. While the official dropout rate is 12 percent, at Enchantment High only 250 seniors graduated from a class that started out with more than 500 students four years ago. After years of complaints, parents and students are becoming concerned and the state is talking about taking over the school if no progress is made. Should Anyone Care About Dropouts? While some students and teachers are sometimes glad to see a troubled student leave, high dropout rates are not just a problem for the students who are dropping out. Individually, students who drop out often face limited job prospects. Many high school dropouts do not find adequate work and, statistically, have a higher likelihood of criminal activity, broken families, unemployment, and reliance on public assistance. Dropouts affect everyone who pays taxes and contributes to the community – not just themselves. How Many Dropouts Are There? The numbers of students who drop out are staggering both for New Mexico and the nation: over 7,500 per year in New Mexico, and over half a million per year nationally. That's almost 3,000 students dropping out each day of the school year. Dropout rates for Hispanic students are disproportionately high, and a recent national report showed a dropout rate in some schools of more than 50 percent between freshman year and graduation. With an annual dropout rate that has often exceeded 8 percent, New Mexico has one of the highest dropout rates in the nation. Why So Many Dropouts? Some of the common explanations for why so many students are dropping out include in-school factors such as lack of early childhood education, boredom with classes, large schools, large classes, inadequate materials, academic difficulties, lack of after-school and mentoring programs, quality of teaching, and bilingual education programs. External factors often used to explain dropout rates include single-parent families, poverty levels, community or cultural values, teen pregnancy, gang activity, immigration policy, and misleading data. What Should Be Done? The decision about what should be done will be yours to make. Taking on roles such as parents, administrators, students, teachers, and elected officials, you will all look at the situation at Enchantment High and make specific proposals about what each of the involved agencies and stakeholders should do.
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