FSCA NEWS

Every nine seconds, another student drops out of school in America.  The most recent national statistics peg the national high school graduation rate at only 69.9 percent. These sobering statistics have astonishing implications for our economy and our ability to compete globally, not to mention the daily lives of those dropouts and their communities. According to a new report, authored by Kelly Hupfeld, a research associate at the Center for Education Policy Analysis at the School of Public Affairs at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, research shows that decreasing the dropout rate can only happen on a student-by-student basis. Hupfeld says that the focus must be turned to individuals, because students drop out for a myriad of personal reasons. Consequently, the best dropout prevention strategies lock on to students as individuals and engage them in school and teach the m the skills they need to cope with difficult times. Resiliency-based programs, which help students develop the skills and relationships they need to succeed inside and outside the classroom, can be incredibly effective in preventing high school dropouts. Still, there is no foolproof method to identify students who will drop out of school, as dropping out seems to be a function of multiple factors across multiple domains. Based on this research, the National Dropout Prevention Center concludes that predictions as to who will drop out are more accurate when multiple risk factors and domains are considered. It is imperative that schools institutionalize resiliency strategies as the world can sometimes do its best to beat down students. It would be great if schools, rather than contributing to the problem, could help enrich and improve students’ lives.
http://scholarcentric.com/key_facts_at_risk_students_dropouts_resiliency_skills.html