01/15/99

What to Do with Dropouts

Q: The high school drop out rate in US cities is too high and has been too high for many years. Parents who dropped out of school raise children who drop out, thus perpetuating the cycle. I think we should offer cash incentives to students with histories of poor attendance and poor grades, provided these students meet defined attendance and academic requirements. If the cash incentives were effective, and we continued the practice for 20 years, we would have a new generation of parents who would expect better educational performance from their children.

We spend thousands of dollars on computers, school supplies and special programs that provide no benefit whatsoever to the students who don't attend school. If we use some of those dollars to entice them back, wouldn't student crime and drug use go down, too?

A: Attitudes about school form very early in a child's life, during preschool and elementary school years. During these early, impressionable years mastery and recognition for it are highly rewarding to children and foster academic success, high attendance rates and positive attitudes toward learning in school.

The key to developing positive student attitudes is to engage parents in the schooling process during the first years of their childrens' lives, when all-important attitudes about oneself, other people and learning are developing. Outreach to parents can take the form of parenting classes, transportation to school meetings and teacher conferences, child care for younger siblings during school events, roles for parents as school volunteers, special school events for parents and grandparents and active home/school collaboration via notebooks, phone calls, internet links and the like.

One teacher I worked with offered an extra "A" in the gradebook to every student who brought at least one adult relative to the Fall Parents' Night. The class had nearly 100% representation from student families, a dramatically higher turn-out than in any other class. No, I do not support the suggestion that we pay students to attend school. I do not believe that we can buy student cooperation or achievement. But I do believe we can do far more to engage families in working closely with educators to improve learning for all students.

Teachers cannot do the job alone.

Please send questions or comments to bbruno@snet.net.