Article Analysis: Facing The School Dropout Dilemma

American Psychological Association. (2012). Facing the school dropout dilemma. Washington, DC: Author.

This article confirms the idea that life events tend to cause students in poverty to drop out before high school graduation. It identifies a few of these events as pregnancy, lack of mentorship, and little access to productive after school extracurricular activities. The American Psychological Association suggests that children are most susceptible to the risks involved with poverty at an early age, so they believe that the solution is to invest in impoverished students early on. This will encourage a passion learning and appreciation for achievements that can carry the student through high school graduation. Their suggestion is to create

The authors believe that by undertaking the problem from socioeconomic standpoint would have the greatest effect on education. The article suggests that a solution to poverty 's effects on education is to fill the gap and provide the support that money typically grants. For example, free after school tutoring and long-term mentoring could solve the gap created by parents who are having to work multiple jobs and cannot be physically present. This article will support my solution to provide mentorship to students below the poverty line in order to increase their chances of academic success. I will use it to suggest that the dropout rate can be more than just reversed. Mentorship will help to identify highly gifted at-risk students that are normally overlooked. I believe that these students can even help schools to raise their standardized testing

It identified one study where disadvantaged children were divided into 2 groups. The first group was provided with preschool and specific attention during the children 's early development. The second group did not receive support before kindergarten. The first group had a 20% higher graduation rate nearly 15 years later. It also identified another study done in poorer Title I schools that focused on early childhood and on parent mentorship. They experienced lower dropout rates and had 11% more students who were at risk of dropout graduate than their peer. This work also identifies students below the poverty line are at risk for pregnancy, incarceration, or having to work to support their families. All of these reasons can lead to the student failing to complete high school. The studies and statistics from this report will be used to support the solution offered in my thesis. They will provide evidence that schools that provide students with stability at an early age can increase the graduation rate of students in poverty.

Princiota, Daniel, and Ryan Reyna. Achieving Graduation For All: A Governor 's Guide to Dropout Prevention and Recovery. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, 2009.