Franklin Schargel’s Blog

However, violence in schools has not disappeared. Consider:

— Eighty-six percent of public schools in 2005-06 reported that one or more violent incidents, thefts of items valued at $10 or greater or other crimes had occurred — a rate of 46 crimes per 1,000 enrolled students.

— Almost a third of students ages 12 to 18 reported being bullied inside school.

— Nearly a quarter of teenagers reported the presence of gangs at their schools.

The statistics appear in a federal report, Indicators of School Crime and Safety published last month, the latest in a series on crime in schools nationwide. The annual reports, a combined effort of the Education and Justice departments, use the most recent statistics available. Federal authorities cull information from a handful of surveys and studies. For the 2009 report, much of the data came from the 2006-07 school year, when an estimated 55.5 million students were enrolled from pre-kindergarten through grade 12.

It is important for parents to realize that extreme violence is very rare at school. The more prevalent type of crime [and abuse] is theft and bullying or peer harassment.

Before 1970, most unmarried mothers were teenagers. But in recent years the birthrate among unmarried women in their 20s and 30s has soared “” rising 34 percent since 2002, for example, in women ages 30 to 34. In 2007, women in their 20s had 60 percent of all babies born out of wedlock, teenagers had 23 percent and women 30 and older had 17 percent.

Much of the increase in unmarried births has occurred among parents who are living together but are not married, cohabitation arrangements that tend to be less stable than marriages, studies show.

The pattern has been particularly pronounced among Hispanic women, climbing 20 percent from 2002 to 2006, the most recent year for which racial breakdowns are available. Eleven percent of unmarried Hispanic women had a baby in 2006, compared with 7 percent of unmarried black women and 3 percent of unmarried white women, according to government data drawn from birth certificates.

Out-of-wedlock births are also rising in much of the industrialized world: in Iceland, 66 percent of children are born to unmarried mothers; in Sweden, the share is 55 percent. (In other societies, though, the phenomenon remains rare “” just 2 percent in Japan, for example.)

Children born out of wedlock in the United States tend to have poorer health and educational outcomes than those born to married women, but that may be because unmarried mothers tend to share those problems.

Some experts speculate that marriage or cohabitation cements financial and emotional bonds between children and fathers that survive divorce or separation, improving outcomes for children. But since familial instability is often damaging to children, they may be better off with mothers who never cohabitate or marry than with those who form unions that are later broken.

The District of Columbia and Mississippi had the highest rates of out-of-wedlock births in 2007: 59 percent and 54 percent, respectively. The lowest rate, 20 percent, was in Utah. In New York, the rate was 41 percent; in New Jersey, 34 percent; and in Connecticut, 35 percent.

What are the implications for educators? Are the children of unmarried mothers at greater risk of dropping out than those of married mothers? The data indicate that there is some correlation between single parents and children dropping out of school. Are the single parents who are giving birth from the lower economic group which also correlates to a higher dropout rate?

New figures from the Oregon Department of Education show that 3,238 students dropped out during their senior year, including 536 who stuck it out through their entire senior year but didn’t earn enough credits to get a diploma.

Overall, 3.7 percent of Oregon high school students dropped out during the year, the lowest rate recorded since the state began tracking dropouts.

Nearly 36,000 students graduated in Oregon’s class of 2008, the state reported.

We have data that this is in keeping with the national data. Of the total of all high school dropouts 16.6% dropout in the senior year. In other words they are saying, with 9 months or fewer, it doesn’t pay for us to stick around.

There may be a number of different reasons why this is true. The students who dropout may be aware that they lack the necessary number of credits for them to graduate. Some drop out in order to pursue other alternatives, i.e., go to work, join the military, or go to college without a high school diploma. Others may drop out because of boredom. The Gates Foundation report, The Silent Epidemic, stated that the major reason that students dropout is because of boredom.

Schools have made major investments in the education of high school seniors. It is imperative that they determine why students drop out in the senior year and address the issue. I suggest that schools/districts look into the Georgia Department of Education’s Graduation Coaches and benchmark that effort.

In 2007, 16 percent of U.S. residents between 16 and 24 years old were high school dropouts. Among the dropouts, 60.1 percent were men, 30.1 percent were Latino and 18.8 percent were black.

Among the findings in the report, “Left Behind in America: The Nation’s Dropout Crisis:”
Nearly one in five U.S. men between the ages of 16 and 24 (18.9 percent) were dropouts in 2007.
Nearly three of 10 Latinos, including recent immigrants, were dropouts (27.5 percent).
More than one in five blacks had dropped out of school (21 percent). The dropout rate for whites was 12.2 percent.
The dropout situation at the state level was similarly widespread:
More than one in 10 people ages 16 to 24 years old had dropped out of high school in each of the 12 states surveyed.
More than one in five 16- to 24-year-olds were dropouts in Florida and Georgia.
California had the most dropouts of any state (710,000), with a 14.4 percent dropout rate among 16- to 24-year-olds.
Georgia had the highest dropout rate for this population at 22.1 percent.

The report goes on to note: “Americans without a high school diploma have considerably lower earning power and job opportunities in today’s workforce. Over a working lifetime from ages 18-64, high school dropouts are estimated to earn $400,000 less than those that graduated from high school. For males, the lifetime earnings loss is nearly $485,000 and exceeds $500,000 in many large states. Due to their lower lifetime earnings and other sources of market incomes, dropouts will contribute far less in federal, state and local taxes than they will receive in cash benefits, in-kind transfers and correctional costs. Over their lifetimes, this will impose a net fiscal burden on the rest of society.
“By contrast, adults with high school diplomas contribute major fiscal benefits to the country over their lifetime. The combined lifetime fiscal benefits — including the payment of payroll, federal, and state income taxes — could amount to more than $250,000 per graduated student. Such a public fiscal benefit more than outweighs the estimated cost of enrolling a student who has dropped out.”

What amazes me is that the report has not attracted major national headlines. If this were the swine flu or any other major catastrophe, the media and politicians would have been all over it demanding that money and other resources need to be put in place to eradicate the problem. I realize that the economy needs to dominate the news, But that, hopefully is a short term problem. The failure to invest in people is a major long-term problem.