How Long Is It Going To Take?

Chicago, along with many other cities across the country, have an alarmingly high percentage of high school dropouts. That said, I believe that school, parents and the community are committed to addressing this very important issue. Steinmetz Academic Centre School has programs in place that are designed to address the issue of drop-out rates. Two of these programs focus on the importance of both service/social as well as academics; service learning and a night school academic program. However, I do not believe that neither the service learning program nor the night school program is digging deep enough in an effort to meeting the needs of these students. For example. the night school program only benefits those students who have to remediate a failing grade in order to graduate. It is my belief that in order to keep students from dropping out, these two programs need to offer more than just community service and passing a class.

Service learning must involve "applying classroom learning through investigation of a community problem, planning ways to solve it, action through service, reflection on the experience and what was learned, and demonstration of results", as stated in the article, Engaged for Success. Also, in order to bring about effective service learning it must be "integrated into the curriculum, involve[s] cognitively challenging reflection activities, while incorporating students' voices in decision making, and requires students to participate in meaningful service".

Students are looking for something that they enjoy and that keeps them engaged enough in education to want to stay. This has been the voice of students who have dropped out. These young people are looking for schools to offer more real-world learning experience, which offers more interesting, relevant, and hands on learning. The power of service learning has the potential to keep these students engaged in community as well as preparing them for success in college. Service learning has a win-win potential, and that is academic achievement and a sense of civic responsibility.

By directly addressing the issues that usually lead students to drop-out, as cited in The Silent Epidemic, the following strategies may help to increase graduation rates:

• Improve teaching and curricula to make school more relevant and engaging and enhance the connections between school and work;


• Improve instruction and access to supports for struggling students;


• Build a school climate that fosters academics;


• Ensure strong adult-student relationships within the school; and


• Improve the communication between parents and schools.

Service learning also has the potential to lower and/or prevent high school students from dropping out as hands on learning creates a more authentic, meaningful and purposeful learning opportunity.

In addressing Steinmetz' night school program, it is important to go beyond remediating a student's failing grade. By way of one example, there is an alternative after school program currently in place at a suburban high school that is designed to meet the academic needs of students who are unable to function in the day school program. These students have many factors/issues that prevent them from succeeding in the day school. These issues, in part, include social and economic challenges, familial dysfunction, and the demands of the institution itself, which all contribute to school failure.

There are no clear cut answers, but clearly some programs are more effective than others. It seems our responsibility is to adopt those that will have the greatest positive impact.