December 2006 

Dropouts: REALLY Addressing Barriers to Learning

The dropout rate continues to be an issue in the public schools. The North Carolina Public Schools Annual Dropout Event Report for School Year 2004-05 (http://www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/schoolimprovement/effective/dropout/2004-05/annualreport.pdf) provided good news and bad news. The good news is that the dropout rate decreased by 0.1% from SY 2003-04 to 2004-05. The bad news is that more than 20,000 students in the 9^th-12^th grades left the public schools in 2004-05, a rate of 4.74%. If each classroom had twenty students, each one would have lost one student during the year.

Howard Adelman, Ph.D., and Linda Taylor, Ph.D., Co-Directors of the Center for Mental Health in Schools (http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/) state in the December 11, 2006, Mental Health in Schools Practitioner Listserv. Dropout prevention has been a long-standing intervention concern. Yet, prevailing approaches clearly have not been effective on a large scale.” Often school dropout programs address the question “What can be done to keep students in school?” Adelman and Taylor suggest that the question should be “What can be done to keep students actively engaged in school?”

The December 11, 2006, Mental Health in Schools Practitioner Listserv helps address that question. It has links to numerous resources available through the Center for Mental Health in Schools and excerpts from an article by Loujeania Williams Bost, Ph.D., Director, National Dropout Prevention Center for Students with Disabilities (http://www.ndpc-sd.org/). Feedback from readers is also solicited.

In the listserv, Adelman and Taylor suggest that retention can be effectively addressed only in context of school improvement that includes addressing barriers to learning. Until the school or school system has a plan that addresses social, emotional and physical needs in addition to academic needs, the dropout rate will not significantly decrease. Learning supports are crucial in No Child Left Behind, No Child Leaving School, and No Child Kicked Out. To help you in thinking about and addressing the retention issue, two resources lists with links are provided on the Center website (http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/hottopic/hottopic(dropoutprevention).htm and http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/qf/dropout.html).

Other helpful resources include:

• The Alternative Schools Network (ASN)
• ASPIRA Association, Inc.
• The Center for Employment Training (CET)
• Dropout Prevention: Priority One
• Educational Programs That Work - 1995
• Hispanic Dropout Project
• How Can We Help? Understanding Dropout Prevention Programs
• Institute for At-Risk Infants, Children, & Youth and Their Families
• Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA)
• Keeping Limited English Proficient Students in School: Strategies for Dropout Prevention
• National Center for Education Statistics
• National Dropout Prevention Centers
• National Service-Learning Clearinghouse
• Research for Better Schools
• SAGE (Skills and Academic Grant Education) Alternative Education Program)
• SERVE

Adelman and Taylor received helpful several responses to their Mental Health in Schools Practitioner Listserv (12/11/06) addressing dropouts and pushouts. Some of those responses are in the December 18, 2006, edition of Mental Health in Schools Practitioner Listserv.

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