African American High School Drop Out Rates

African American High School Drop Out Rates

African American High School Drop Out Rates

Students can “drop out” of education; this can be school, college or university at any time after they have accepted a place on the course, or, if still in full time education, can refuse to go to school at any point. Dropping out has historically meant dropping out of civilised society altogether and is associated with communes and hippie culture. The phrase is used nowadays for dropping out of anything, such as school, dance class, scouts, friendship groups etc.

There are many reasons that students drop out of education including:

  • to avoid bullying
  • unplanned pregnancy
  • the need to find paid employment
  • copying friends who have dropped out
  • individual special needs not being met by tutors
  • dealing with family problems including death or separation of parents
  • not having high enough grades to access course wanted
  • boredom in lessons
  • not enough one to one support from staff
  • being homesick / loneliness
  • academic problems – course too hard
  • laziness
  • too much late night partying making it impossible to get up early
  • no friends at school/college/uni
  • feeling uncomfortable with new environment at college or uni
  • parental pressure to access higher education contradicts students own desires
  • dislike of course after starting it and transfer to another course
  • finding it hard to fit into new, larger school with many more new faces or a different school life

The Telegraph

According to The Telegraph in an article published online on 5/6/08, more than 1 in 7 students drop out of university. They also state that thousands of undergraduates transfer to other universities or onto lesser qualifications. “According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency, 14.1 per cent of students who started degrees in 2005/06 will fail to complete courses after dropping out,” writes Graeme Paton, Education Editor, The Telegraph.

New TEchnologies

A recent measure being taken up by schools, colleges and universities to try and reduce the dropout rate is to use modern technology such as emails, texting, learning walls, VLEs and Facebook. These are being used by students, who are already confident in using this technology, to get information about assignments or access help from staff when working away from site. Staff use the technology for reminders about deadlines, to offer advice or support to groups of students who may be going down the wrong track, and to set and gather in assignments. Use of these new technologies can be totally free to places of education, making the decision to use them almost compulsory in today’s climate of recession and making every penny count.