| | Cut America’s High School Dropout Rate in Half
 By 2018, 87 percent of high school seniors will graduate on time, up from 73.9 percent today.
That increase translates to 560,000 more youth who will receive diplomas in 2018.
| | An ill-prepared 12th grader does not one day magically appear in a cap and gown ready to pick up a diploma. This 10-year goal means we must engage with children and families from birth. |
“Upon the education of the people the fate of this country depends.” Disraeli was speaking of his country, Great Britain, some 150 years ago, but these words capture the American belief in the critical importance of universal education. Education is the foundation for a good life, setting the individual on a path of personal fulfillment, economic security and societal contribution.
We are highlighting three points in students’ lives that help predict success in school and later as adults: readiness to enter kindergarten, reading proficiency in fourth grade and on-time graduation from high school.
Readiness to succeed in school means that children enter kindergarten developmentally on track in the areas of literacy and in social, emotional and cognitive skills. One way to track pre-literacy and cognitive skills is by looking at the percentage of children ages 3 to 5 who have all or most of four commonly recognized schoolreadiness skills (recognizing their letters, counting to 20 or higher, writing their names and reading or pretending to read). Data from the National Household Education Survey show progress, but less than 40 percent of kids enter school with the skills needed to succeed in kindergarten and beyond. Those without these skills—the majority of young children—are starting school already at a disadvantage. United Way is leading an effort that would measure more comprehensively all dimensions of school readiness at the beginning of kindergarten.
Academic achievement means elementary-age students are prepared to succeed in later grades and to graduate from high school. If children are reading at grade level in fourth grade, they have a much better chance of handling more complex assignments in later grades. And if they are doing well, the chances are better, too, that they feel confident they can handle middle and high school classes. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, reading proficiency has improved over the last 10 years, but less than one-third of the nation’s fourth graders are rated “proficient” in reading.
Academic achievement is also reflected in ontime high school graduation rates. The percentage of freshmen who enter high school and graduate four years later increased by a few points since 1997 to about 74 percent. But that still means more than 1 million students each year fail to get their diploma on time, as reported by the National Center on Education Statistics.
That number is unacceptably high. Dropping out means these young people will more than likely never earn enough to make ends meet. It means their children will be similarly disadvantaged and perhaps start kindergarten unprepared, thus perpetuating the cycle.
Finally, the last piece in understanding how education contributes to achieving the potential of children and youth:
Young adults, age 18 to 24, are making a successful transition from high school to the working world. They may be in college, in a training program or working, acquiring the experience they need to succeed as adults. The measure for this is the percentage of 18- to 24- year-olds who are neither working (full or part time) nor in school. This indicator should trend downward: that is, a decrease in the indicator means an increase in the percentage of young adults productively engaged after high school. And while the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey shows a slight improvement over the past decade, too many young adults— more than one in seven—are neither working nor attending school, even part time. When they fall between the cracks, our country suffers the consequences. top^
|
