Editorial

Letters to the Editor

  Dear Editor,
  Many high school teenage girls  are dropping out because they are getting pregnant and the young guys because they are becoming fathers. This is due to the fact that they are loosing interest in school. The classes are becoming boring and they don't want to go to school no more. Also students are loosing interest because they are from family of low incomes. The fact that they are Hispanics and African Americans are forcing them to droop out and not completing there dreams. This are facts that are influencing young teens not getting a high school diploma.

   Dear Editor,
 The fact that high school students are dropping out is because they are not getting challenge in school. They say that the classes are getting boring, when in fact they should get more mentors and teachers that help them. The part of them having a  low income should not effect them because there is always help from the government and and public schools. Furthermore the teen girls that are getting pregnant and the young men that are becoming parents should find a way to stay in school there is always help and support from someone. This means that there is no reason for someone to dropout!

The real dropout rate

Published July 5, 2006

Do you know how many kids drop out of high school? The U.S. Department of Education estimates the number is about one out of every 10 students. Somewhat comforting, perhaps.

But the Manhattan Institute, a leading conservative research center, argues that the Education Department's measuring standard doesn't give the full picture. The Institute estimates that only two out of three high school freshmen go on to graduate in four years. Slightly more than one out of two African-Americans and Hispanics graduate in that time.

Hold on, says the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute. Their researchers estimate that slightly more than eight out of 10 students receive a high school diploma. Two out of three African-American and Latino students do so.

A new study at the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center seems more in line with the Manhattan Institute. Almost a third of the students who entered high school four years ago did not graduate on time this year, according to the study, which was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Some of the largest cities had the poorest results. Detroit, home of the nation's 11th largest school district, rankest lowest in the nation with a 21.7 percent graduation rate.

Chicago, the third largest school system, had a 52.2 percent graduation rate. That corresponded with a study by the Consortium on Chicago School Research at the University of Chicago, which reported this year that 54 percent of Chicago public school freshmen receive a diploma.

Why all the different numbers? It depends on who gets counted and how they're counted. Federal officials ask public schools to report only how many students are in 9th grade and how many diplomas, including GEDs, are handed out each year. The Manhattan Institute says that's misleading because students who fail to graduate on time, even if they go on to earn a GED, do not do nearly as well in the job market as students who finish high school on time. High school dropouts are far more likely to end up in poverty than are high school graduates.

The National Governors Association agreed last year to push for common standards for measuring dropout rates. It would help to have a fix on the problem--because it is a problem.

One-third of teens with ADHD delay high school degree or drop out

By Robert Preidt, HealthDay

Teens with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are more likely to drop out of high school or delay completing high school than other kids, a new study has found.

Researchers analyzed U.S. data and found that nearly one-third of students with the most common type of ADHD either drop out or delay high school graduation. That rate is twice that of students with no psychiatric disorder.

"Most people think that the student who is acting out, who is lying and stealing, is most likely to drop out of school. But we found that students with the combined type of ADHD — the most common type — have a higher likelihood of dropping out than students with disciplinary problems," study senior author Julie Schweitzer, an ADHD expert and associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of California, Davis, said in a university news release.

"This study shows that ADHD is a serious disorder that affects a child's ability to be successful in school and subsequently in a way that can limit success in life," she added.

Developing methods to help students with ADHD graduate high school could have significant long-term societal benefits, according to Schweitzer.

"If you don't have your high school degree, you're going to have less income. You can't buy houses and cars. People who drop out of high school are more likely to be reliant on public assistance. This is a disorder that has serious long-term impacts on your ability to be successful and contribute to society, not just in school, but for the rest of your life," she said.

The researchers also found high drop-out rates among students with other mental health disorders. The rates were 26.6% for those with mood disorder, 24.9% for those with panic disorder, and up to about 20% for those with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, generalized anxiety disorder and social phobia.

Smoking was also associated with a high risk of dropping out. The study found that 29% of students who smoked failed to complete high school on time, compared with 20% of those who used alcohol and 24.6% of those who used drugs.

The study was published in the July online edition of the Journal of Psychiatric Research.