High School Dropouts in Chicago

What makes the urban setting even worse than the rest of the state is an immense social problem to undertake. For example the percentage of those who drop out of school in Chicago, is roughly three times higher than the rest of the state of Illinois. Why are teeagers dropping out of high school?

In the 1997-98 school year in Chicago it was 17.57% compared to 4.68% in the rest of the state. In Chicago, this was up from 15.62% from the previous school year. the 1996-97 school year, according to the Illinois State Board of Education’s statistics.

Every year, nearly 15,000 teenagers drop out of the Chicago Public Schools. Students drop out of school for many reasons, and though there are early indicators in profiling the school dropout, like attendance, the failing student, and other experiences in school to name a few, needless to say, larger societal problems, like drug use, gangs, and teen pregnacies may affect even the students who have had a positive experiences in school.

Some students do well in grammar school, but have difficulty in making the transition to high school. Potentially English Proficient (PEP) students who receive adequate instruction in Bilingual Programs in both their native language, and in English as a second language (ESL), but all of a sudden find themselves in their neighborhood high school with inadequate support even in ESL, will drop out, to work, with little encouragement to return to school, because they will be adding to the familial income in the short run. What happens to teens that have dropped out?

Though the debate in Chicago in recent years about Bilingual Education resulted in limiting many PEP students to three years in a Bilingual program in Chicago, and will align the Chicago Public Schools with the state rules and regulations, this notion, on the other hand, is in contradiction to the research at hand, which suggests that students in the program 5 to 7 years will do not only as well as, but better than their monolingual counterparts. Students three to five years will do less well, or as well. While students in the program only 1-3 years will do less well once thrown into the all English environment, with some exceptions. What experiences have adversely affected students early on?

Some early indicators about school failure suggest that the grading system, and our “Skinner” tradition of rewards is part of the problem, to put it nicely. Comparing what we have been doing to: “sorting students like potatoes”, “bribing them by dangling goodies in

front of them”, and “treating them like rodents to get them to jump through the hoop”, is putting it a bit more bluntly. It was done to us, so we must do it to them.

Some innovative schools have eliminated the grading system up until third grade, in understanding that there is much research about the notion that students are “ punished by rewards”.

References

Ayers, W. (1997). A kind and just parent: The children of juvenile court. Boston: Beacon Press.

Ayers, W., & Ford, P. (1996). City Kids City Teachers: Reports from the front row. New York: The New Press.

Kanneya, R.(1998). Dropout rates still plague public schools. The Chicago Reporter. Chicago, (May 98).

Kelleher, M.(1999). Drop out rates climb as schools dump truants. Catalyst: Voices of Chicago School Reform,(Vol.X. no. 9, June 99).

Klonsky, M.(1998) Small schools: The numbers tell a story, a review of the research and current experiences,(3rd ed.)Chicago: UIC Publications Service.

Kohn, A.(1993). Punished by rewards: The trouble with gold st*rs, incentive plan$, A’s, praise, and other bribes. New York:Houghton Mifflin.

Schreiber, D.(1967) Profile of the school dropout: A reader on America’s major educational problem. New York: Random House.