Scheduling For Credit Recover and Dropout Prevention

Dropping out means leaving high school, college, university or another group for practical reasons, necessities, or disillusionment with the system from which the individual in question leaves. 1.2 million students drop out of high school every year, many falling into a cycle of poverty, unemployment and violence. Sobering statistics on dropouts include:

· Every year, over 1.2 million students drop out of high school in the United States alone. That’s a student every 26 seconds – or 7,000 a day.^[1]

· About 25% of high school freshmen fail to graduate from high school on time.^[2]

· The U.S., which had some of the highest graduation rates of any developed country, now ranks 22nd out of 27 developed countries.^[3]

· The dropout rate has fallen 3% from 1990 to 2010 (12.1% to 7.4%).^[4]

· The percentage of graduating Latino students has significantly increased. In 2010, 71.4% received their diploma vs. 61.4% in 2006. However, Asian-American and white students are still far more likely to graduate than Latino & African-American students.^[5]

· A high school dropout will earn $200,000 less than a high school graduate over his lifetime. And almost a million dollars less than a college graduate.^[6]

· In 2010, 38 states had higher graduation rates. Vermont had the highest rate, with 91.4% graduating. And Nevada had the lowest with 57.8% of students graduating.^[7]

· Almost 2,000 high schools across the U.S. graduate less than 60% of their students.^[8]

· These “dropout factories” account for over 50% of the students who leave school every year.^[9]

· 1 in 6 students attend a dropout factory. 1 in 3 minority students (32%) attend a dropout factory, compared to 8% of white students.^[10]

· In the U.S., high school dropouts commit about 75% of crimes.^[11]

· On average, each person in U.S. who does not receive a high school diploma dies about 10 years sooner than the diploma student, and the non-diploma student will cost society about 1.2 million dollars in lost wages, taxes, and health costs.

· About 75% of state prison inmates and 59% of federal inmates did not graduate from high school. In the U.S. we spend onaverage $30,000 per year per inmate and less than $10,500per year per student.

· A large proportion of dropouts could be academically successful; in fact up to one-fifth of them may be gifted.

We know that far too many students dropout of school and students from high-poverty situations drop out at the highest rate......the question is what are we doing to fix it and help them get to graduation?