New program targets the high school dropout rate
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
It is no secret the key to success is a solid education. However, what many people do not realize is just how pervasive the problem is and how much it costs society through losses in revenues, increased expenditures in social programs and decreases in our nation’s productivity.
About 1.4 million students drop out each year costing, the U.S. about $192 billion in lost tax revenues. An estimated 13 million dropouts over the next decade will cost the nation $3 trillion in lost taxes, incarceration expenses and social services.
“School dropout rate has been called the silent epidemic because of its soaring cost to individuals and society, and the general lack of awareness by policy makers and the public regarding the extent of the problem,” said Ron Cox, Oklahoma State University Cooperative Extension family sciences specialist and associate director of the Center for Family Risk and Resilience. “A person without a high school diploma is much more likely to live in poverty the rest of their life, depend on government assistance, cycle in and out of the prison system and to have both physical and mental health issues.”
The dropout rate is particularly high among our nation’s most disadvantaged youth. Research indicates educational achievement among poor and minority students is not just an important moral concern, but also holds the potential to affect the future of our country.
The achievement gap between white students and black and Latino students, for example, has the same effect on the nation’s economy as permanent recession or approximately 2 percent to 4 percent of the gross domestic product.
To help combat this problem, the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service and North Carolina State University are working together to implement the Together for Better Education program called Juntos and study its impact on Latino youth and their families.
“The goal of the program is to increase the number of Latino students who graduate from high school and participate in higher education,” he said. “The program is in the beginning stages and has been funded for five years by the USDA.”
Cox said Juntos provides youth and families with a six-week program that shows Latino parents and youth how to be successful in school; after-school 4-H club activities that teach youth to be enterprising leaders, visionaries and more; as well as mentoring and tutoring to become academically successful.
The program is currently being pilot tested with 8th grade students and their parents.
“The dropout rate is a complex issue, but there are three areas that are key, including parental involvement in school, increased opportunities for positive youth development through afterschool programs and activities, and increased opportunities for academic coaching, mentoring and tutoring,” he said.
The desired long-term results of the program are two-fold. The first desired result is 80 percent of participating youth improve their academic performance and aspirations by increases in study habits, attendance, semester grades, college entrance exams, graduation rates and completed financial aid application. The second desired result is the program will show long-term sustainability in leadership competence, effective collaboration, understanding community, demonstrating and disseminating program impact, strategic funding, staff involvement and integration and program responsiveness.
For more information about the Juntos program, please contact Cox at 405-744-9938, or via email at r.cox@okstate.edu.