21st Century Drop Outs

21st Century Drop Outs


Governor Mike Easley has proclaimed September 7th-13th Graduation Awareness Week. In the spirit of this official proclamation, my hope is to make all of us aware of a few issues surrounding graduation.

In my travels throughout the county and state, I have heard parents, grandparents and students make statements about graduation and college. I’d like to share some of these with you, and see exactly where we stand in relationship to those issues in 2008.

Statement: My child doesn’t need a high school diploma, and definitely doesn’t need a college degree- I didn’t.

Just like the cost of food and other items go up, so has the experience necessary to hold even the simplest jobs. This is sometimes referred to as “inflationary education”. Roughly translated, jobs that required no high school diploma twenty years ago now do, those that required no post-secondary training now do, those that once required associate’s degrees now require bachelor’s degree’s etc. A worker with an associate’s degree makes on average $8000 more than one with a high school diploma. This is often the difference between living in poverty and not. I don’t know of a single parent who wishes poverty on their child, yet when we fail to encourage our children or allow them to fall short of their potential, we are setting them up for a very difficult life. The 21st century requires skills that can only be learned through additional education.

Statement: College is too expensive.

This use to be a formidable barrier. Even with the excellent support of our guidance counselors and financial aid officers, getting the money it took to go to college was often unrealistic. If a student was able to get loans or financial aid, after graduation they were left with thousands of dollars of debt. Thanks to the North Carolina Learn and Earn program (http://www.nclearnandearn.gov), students can enroll in college courses and receive up to two years credit while still enrolled in high school- free. NC Learn and Earn also has a grant program which would allow eligible students to finish their final two years free, allowing the student to graduate with a bachelor’s degree and no debt. On average those graduates with a college degree make $22,000 dollars more than students with high school diplomas.

Statement: My child has had some challenges in the traditional school setting. Why should I encourage them to take college classes now?

We are finding that some students participating in online courses actually perform better because it fits their style of learning. Of course we have students that also struggle, but—and this is important—students are much more likely to seek assistance in the high school environment where they have a built in support system and teachers to assist. Many students fail in the college setting because they lack the type of support that they received in high school- they are in many places “on their own”. NC Learn and Earn provides college-level courses in a safe, familiar atmosphere.



Statement: I am a graduating senior and want to stay in Columbus County. Why should I go “above and beyond” just to get my high school diploma. Why not just take a job where I don’t need any additional training?

This is a question I hear often. Many companies will give a higher starting salary with additional studies beyond high school, even if it’s just an hourly wage. The fact that a student takes the initiative to study beyond high school can also set them above the other 1500 recent graduates in the eyes of a prospective employer. Also, one of the obstacles to getting additional companies to locate in Columbus County is our lack of highly skilled workers. If all of our students looked at their education as not stopping until SOME courses were taken post-high school, our local economy would be much better for it.

You’ll note that I have not talked about drop out prevention, or just getting students to graduate. Columbus County Schools has numerous “safety nets” in place from NovaNet credit recovery, to highly trained, caring guidance counselors. We have lowered the drop out rate and are dedicated to doing so in the future. In a way, though, these are hollow victories, because we know that just getting a student through high school has still left the child missing vital skills that could improve the quality of their life.

I want to hold our school system to a higher standard. We need to focus on the “21st Century Drop Out” -the number of students that, despite all the opportunities, fail to receive any training after high school. Their future is as bleak as the traditional drop out’s future was twenty years ago. Join me in reinforcing the importance of advanced education to every child—from pre-kindergarten to twelfth grade.

Please visit our website at www.columbus.k12.nc.us and I invite your comments on my blog at drstrickland.blogspot.com.