Build Schools, Not Prisons!

The costs of high school dropouts to society are shocking--from higher Medicaid and Medicare costs to lost tax revenues to high incarceration rates. Even more shocking is the high dropout rate of students of diversity and the resulting poor health, poverty, and imprisonment rates.

The good news, according to Hank Levin of Teachers College, Columbia University, is that when you invest in highly effective educational programs, the benefits to society (in increased tax revenues and decreases in public medical services and incarceration) far exceed the costs of such programs. And which programs are the best? Now, that's the question.

The Brookings Institute has released a study in which only five interventions were highly effective in producing "additional graduates"--that is, in reducing the dropout rate. Would you be surprised to hear that three of these interventions are early childhood education programs, serving children from preschool to 3rd grade? Would you be interested to know that teacher salary increases is one of these five interventions?

The other highly effective intervention is a high school program called First Things First--a comprehensive program that includes small learning comunities, personalized learning, more counselors, and less teacher turnover. The complete report can be found on this Web site.

Comments

[D. J. Mathews]

I am totally in agreement that we are not doing enough to prevent school dropouts and other measures that would keep kids in school and out of trouble. Many communities don't have adequate support systems for parents and the kids fall by the wayside.
A lot of communities don't "have" a lot of money to invest in highly effective education systems, or have school leaders who are sorry or lazy. What can a parent do? They can become more educated and become a part of the education equation. As the wife of a teacher I know that teachers and parents don't connect the way they should. The book "Let's Run Our Schools Together" is a helpful book for both parents and teachers alike, who need each other and need to work together. See info on this book at www.djmathews.com.

[Franklin P. Schargel]

There are 4 major reasons why students drop out - their families, the student themselves, the community they come from and the schools they go to. If we cherry pick only one of the causes we will never get better.

[Karla Russell-McCreary]

I agree with the article. In addition to the comprehensive H.S. program, we need a comprehensive approach to teaching middle school students. Teams, which attempts to creat smaller learning groups as stated above are only one aspect of comprehensive middle school needs. Adolescent challenges are seldom address in a broad and thorough sense that would be effective. Social Emotional learning must be a part of every class subject and not left to a few counselors and intervention groups. Parents need this additional support in teaching character education and health education since many of societies immoral influences discourage students from doing "the right thing" in life. Parents also need help in teaching their children about healthy relationships and sex education. In Georgia, our Health & Physical Education
is in the middle of an overhaul which is past due. I hope it will include a comprehensive health class that doesn't falsy assume everyone will remain a virgin until marriage. Abstinence only programs have been proven unsuccessful as STD's, deaths by AIDS and teen pregnancy rates climb despite the past 5 years 30% declines in African American teens. Politics and religion aren't supposed to be in our Public Schools but they are in a negative way.