Dropout Prevention Resources
GED Testing Service About 96% of U.S. employers accept the GED credential as equal to a traditional high school diploma. Learn about the new 2014 GED program. For more information, contact the GED Testing Service of call 877-EXAM-GED (877-392-6433).
National Dropout Prevention Center for Students with Disabilities Established in 2004 by the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) to assist in building states’ capacity to increase school completion rates for students with disabilities. The goal of this center is to provide high quality evidence-based technical assistance to help states build and implement sustainable programs and best practices that will yield positive results in dropout prevention, reentry and school completion for students with disabilities.
Schargel Consulting Group Information and resources for parents, educators, and researchers on dropout prevention, increasing graduation rates, narrowing the achievement gap, creating safe schools, and improving school leadership and culture.
Information on Dropping Out and Dropout Prevention
Does U.S. approach to truants, runaways do more harm than good? Under the Becca Bill, parents are empowered to request that youths be locked up, and schools can be required to jump into the juvenile justice system to handle truancy after 10 unexcused absences in a school year. Kids end up doing time for missing school.
Everyday Strategies that Help Teenagers Succeed For parents of middle-school and high school students
Grade Retention: A Flawed Education Strategy Contrary to popular belief, an overwhelmingly large body of studies have consistently demonstrated negative academic and emotional effects of retention.
Grade Retention and Promotion: Information for Parents Important information from the National Association of School Psychologists
Grade Retention is Harmful to Children Children who have been retained are at much higher risk of having behavior problems, substance abuse problems, low self-esteem, low motivation, and a negative attitude towards school. Retention also is the most powerful predictor of who will drop out of high school.
High School Dropout Potential Could Be Determined In Middle School From Dropout Nation, a report by PBS’s Frontline that examines the work of Johns Hopkins researcher Dr. Robert Balfanz, who says there is a key period in middle school that determines whether a student will eventually drop out.
How much do dropouts cost us? The real numbers behind ‘pay now or pay later’ Of 40 million Americans between 16 and 24, about 6.7 million are neither in school nor employed. About half are high school droupouts; the others may have a GED. All are underemployed, if they work at all. To taxpayers, each of these so-called “opportunity youths” imposes a lifetime cost of about $235,680 in welfare payments, food stamp, criminal justice and medical care. Multiply that across the full 6.7 million cohort and the hit is nearly incomprehensible: $1.6 trillion.
Is School Retention Child Abuse? Holding kids back does not get them the social and emotional and academic support they need. Instead, it aggravates the very conditions that led to their original failure.
Move Over, Traffic Court, It’s Time for a New Money-Making Scheme: School Truancy Laws That Jail Parents and Levy Excessive Fines Instead of giving students detention or some other in-school punishment for “unauthorized” absences, schools are now opting to fine parents and force them, or their kids, to serve jail time. (“Unauthorized” is the key word here, of course, since schools retain the right to determine whether an absence sanctioned by a parent or even a doctor is acceptable.)
Report on Truancy and Dropout Prevention From the American Bar Association
The Role of Parents in Dropout Prevention: Strategies That Promote Graduation and School Achievement By staying involved, focusing on individual strengths, finding the right school setting, and holding high expectations, parents can help their children prepare for successful adulthood.