Failing to Graduate
Dropping Out of School has Serious Consequences, Both for the Student and for the Communities
Where They Live
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by Sean Corcoran
When a young person drops out of high school in the year 2009, it's a decision that often comes with consequences for more than only the student. It's a community problem, particularly on Cape Cod, a region already experiencing an exodus of young people. Dropout rates further threaten the Cape's shrinking workforce and the area's ability to attract employers.
Stephanie Davidson was on her way to the school office to pick up papers last year, documents that essentially would let her teachers, the school district and the state know she was dropping out. After 11 years in school, she'd decided there was nothing else she could do, really. Dropping out was the only option she had left.
"There were just a lot of issues that really made going to the school hard for me. I really wasn't doing well. One day it happens I was actually going to the guidance office to pick out dropout papers. I thought about it for awhile and time and time again I tried to get myself up to speed. Anything would be better than dropping out but it got to be where it seemed like the better idea."
Davidson, who is 17 now, is a Dennis resident who transferred to Harwich High School from Taunton during her junior year. It was a difficult transition. She says she felt like things were moving too fast for her.
"I couldn't keep up with the work and I didn't think the teachers were really willing to listen. I was completely consumed; I didn't konw what to do. ...And it just seemed like no matter how hard I studied I jsut couldn't keep up. It was a struggle in which, ultimately, I said, you know, where I said I've had enough. Like I was prepared to go home and tell my mother I was dropping out of high school. And they pulled me aside and told me I could sit in on this diploma plus meeting. "
Davidson is a senior in the Diploma Plus program at Cape Cod Community College. And the odds are, she will graduate this spring, because 98 percent of the students in this program do. Coren Peacock, the program's director at 4Cs and a Cape native herself, says Davidson tells a common story: often students to not want to leave school, but they think they have no hope of graduating.
"It's the snowball effect. That all of a suddenly they pick up their heads up one day and say, I missed too much school. Or, too much is going on at home emotionally they just can't keep on top of school work and family life. ... And what I hear now is that the young people are saying their friends are dropping out because more of them are contributing to their households or are the sole supporters of their families to help pay mortgages and so on."
There are 10 others Diploma Plus programs scattered across the state, and they are geared for students who, for whatever reason, have not been very successful in high school. About 45 seniors attend the program at 4Cs from a varying number of Cape and Islands school districts each year -- the districts that can afford to pay the $1,000 per student fee. In addition to other support services, the program includes a focus on career and public service, and students take classes at the college for credit. Davidson, and dozens of other students in similar programs who were interviewed for this story, all raved about their teachers and the support staff, while also saying it's just easier to concentrate and keep up with things while on the college campus.
"It's really helped me to sort out all my goals. I know what I want to do, I want to graduate from the program and go on to college. It really put me in my place. I know what I need to be successful from this program."
That's exactly what David Augustino and Courtney Garsha at the Cape and Islands Workforce Investment Board want to hear. Three years ago they attended a conference in Worcester about the growing dropout rates across the state, and there they met several local school administrators. It was a watershed moment. Today, Augustino says the workforce investment board is involved in dozens of efforts in conjunction with educators to identify potential dropouts and then to support those students and prepare them for work. And among the programs it's involved with is Diploma Plus, because, Augustino says, high school dropouts weaken the area's workforce.
"The more we can skill them up, the better we are able to meet our employer's needs."
The fact is, when people lack the qualifications and skills to get good, well-paying jobs, they often end up on public assistance. For example, studies indicate that a high school dropout costs taxpayers nearly a half-million dollars over a lifetime. And Coren Peacock says it's important that not only students, but that residents and taxpayers understand the impact high school dropouts have on communities.
"The costs are very broad because those folks, if they are not self sufficient adults, they are utilizing other public funds and resources in terms of Medicare, medicaid, maybe housing assistance, the healthcare plans like Mass Health and unemployment benefits and so on."
Len Fayland is the principal at Cape Cod Technical School in Harwich, which two years ago launched a dropout prevention program for junior and seniors, both for the sake of the young people, but also because, as a technical school, administrators at Cape Cod Tech recognize the drag dropouts create on the local economy and social service network.
"It's important that the people who are employers in the region are able to count on a skilled workforce that is dedicated to getting to work and have the employability skills to keep them productively engaged. I really feel strongly that when the students aren't productively engaged they are a drain on the region and really the limited resources of the region."
Fayland says it's not uncommon for people to dismiss Cape Cod as a white collar vacation spot, where issues such as high school dropouts are not thought of as significant.
"I think people off Cape really look at our region as affluent, the playground of the rich, if you will. It's not. It's far different. I can tell you that once the tourists go back to Boston and the surrounding area - - Connecticut, New Jersey, where have you, we are left with a pretty blue collar group here. It is great if the blue collar group is employed. But boy, if they are not, we have a recipe for difficulty and trouble."
Last year, just under 250 out of 3,000 students that made up the Class of 2008 on Cape Cod and the Islands did not graduate. That's more than 8 percent. But statistics clearly show that the numbers are going down. For example, two years ago, nearly 300 students -- or about 12 percent -- of the similar- sized class of 2006 failed to graduate. No one knows for sure why the Cape's dropout rate is improving, though it could be because of various new programs and an increasing awareness of the problem. But the concern now is, with budgets becoming tighter, and with more teens being asked to contribute financially to their cash-strapped families, educators say there's a risk that the region could begin moving backwards on the issue rather than forward.
Read or listen to the first story of this series.
Listen to this
story.by Sean Corcoran
When a young person drops out of high school in the year 2009, it's a decision that often comes with consequences for more than only the student. It's a community problem, particularly on Cape Cod, a region already experiencing an exodus of young people. Dropout rates further threaten the Cape's shrinking workforce and the area's ability to attract employers.
Stephanie Davidson was on her way to the school office to pick up papers last year, documents that essentially would let her teachers, the school district and the state know she was dropping out. After 11 years in school, she'd decided there was nothing else she could do, really. Dropping out was the only option she had left.
"There were just a lot of issues that really made going to the school hard for me. I really wasn't doing well. One day it happens I was actually going to the guidance office to pick out dropout papers. I thought about it for awhile and time and time again I tried to get myself up to speed. Anything would be better than dropping out but it got to be where it seemed like the better idea."
Davidson, who is 17 now, is a Dennis resident who transferred to Harwich High School from Taunton during her junior year. It was a difficult transition. She says she felt like things were moving too fast for her.
"I couldn't keep up with the work and I didn't think the teachers were really willing to listen. I was completely consumed; I didn't konw what to do. ...And it just seemed like no matter how hard I studied I jsut couldn't keep up. It was a struggle in which, ultimately, I said, you know, where I said I've had enough. Like I was prepared to go home and tell my mother I was dropping out of high school. And they pulled me aside and told me I could sit in on this diploma plus meeting. "
Davidson is a senior in the Diploma Plus program at Cape Cod Community College. And the odds are, she will graduate this spring, because 98 percent of the students in this program do. Coren Peacock, the program's director at 4Cs and a Cape native herself, says Davidson tells a common story: often students to not want to leave school, but they think they have no hope of graduating.
"It's the snowball effect. That all of a suddenly they pick up their heads up one day and say, I missed too much school. Or, too much is going on at home emotionally they just can't keep on top of school work and family life. ... And what I hear now is that the young people are saying their friends are dropping out because more of them are contributing to their households or are the sole supporters of their families to help pay mortgages and so on."
There are 10 others Diploma Plus programs scattered across the state, and they are geared for students who, for whatever reason, have not been very successful in high school. About 45 seniors attend the program at 4Cs from a varying number of Cape and Islands school districts each year -- the districts that can afford to pay the $1,000 per student fee. In addition to other support services, the program includes a focus on career and public service, and students take classes at the college for credit. Davidson, and dozens of other students in similar programs who were interviewed for this story, all raved about their teachers and the support staff, while also saying it's just easier to concentrate and keep up with things while on the college campus.
"It's really helped me to sort out all my goals. I know what I want to do, I want to graduate from the program and go on to college. It really put me in my place. I know what I need to be successful from this program."
That's exactly what David Augustino and Courtney Garsha at the Cape and Islands Workforce Investment Board want to hear. Three years ago they attended a conference in Worcester about the growing dropout rates across the state, and there they met several local school administrators. It was a watershed moment. Today, Augustino says the workforce investment board is involved in dozens of efforts in conjunction with educators to identify potential dropouts and then to support those students and prepare them for work. And among the programs it's involved with is Diploma Plus, because, Augustino says, high school dropouts weaken the area's workforce.
"The more we can skill them up, the better we are able to meet our employer's needs."
The fact is, when people lack the qualifications and skills to get good, well-paying jobs, they often end up on public assistance. For example, studies indicate that a high school dropout costs taxpayers nearly a half-million dollars over a lifetime. And Coren Peacock says it's important that not only students, but that residents and taxpayers understand the impact high school dropouts have on communities.
"The costs are very broad because those folks, if they are not self sufficient adults, they are utilizing other public funds and resources in terms of Medicare, medicaid, maybe housing assistance, the healthcare plans like Mass Health and unemployment benefits and so on."
Len Fayland is the principal at Cape Cod Technical School in Harwich, which two years ago launched a dropout prevention program for junior and seniors, both for the sake of the young people, but also because, as a technical school, administrators at Cape Cod Tech recognize the drag dropouts create on the local economy and social service network.
"It's important that the people who are employers in the region are able to count on a skilled workforce that is dedicated to getting to work and have the employability skills to keep them productively engaged. I really feel strongly that when the students aren't productively engaged they are a drain on the region and really the limited resources of the region."
Fayland says it's not uncommon for people to dismiss Cape Cod as a white collar vacation spot, where issues such as high school dropouts are not thought of as significant.
"I think people off Cape really look at our region as affluent, the playground of the rich, if you will. It's not. It's far different. I can tell you that once the tourists go back to Boston and the surrounding area - - Connecticut, New Jersey, where have you, we are left with a pretty blue collar group here. It is great if the blue collar group is employed. But boy, if they are not, we have a recipe for difficulty and trouble."
Last year, just under 250 out of 3,000 students that made up the Class of 2008 on Cape Cod and the Islands did not graduate. That's more than 8 percent. But statistics clearly show that the numbers are going down. For example, two years ago, nearly 300 students -- or about 12 percent -- of the similar- sized class of 2006 failed to graduate. No one knows for sure why the Cape's dropout rate is improving, though it could be because of various new programs and an increasing awareness of the problem. But the concern now is, with budgets becoming tighter, and with more teens being asked to contribute financially to their cash-strapped families, educators say there's a risk that the region could begin moving backwards on the issue rather than forward.
Read or listen to the first story of this series.
