It Takes a Village

High school dropouts, they happen every year and often times can be prevented if

communities, families, and schools paid attention to the right details. There is a famous African

proverb that puts it very well, “It takes a village to raise a child” but how does this apply to the

dropout issue? The proverb explains how it takes more than just immediate family to help

support a child (student), the support can come in many shapes and sizes: schools, friends,

neighborhoods, teachers, recreational centers, daycares, tutors, etc. Although the issue of

students discontinuing high school seems to go down a little more each year there were still

11%1 of high school students in Utah that didn’t graduate in 2018. This effects everyone in Utah

and that’s something to notice, students that dropout of high school create higher risk to

themselves and others and cost more in healthcare and criminal justice.2 As the issue exists

solutions also exist such as, better aid to poor families or English Learners, possible prevention

courses, and helping parents understand how to help their student(s). I will explain these three

solutions in better detail and how they can actually be of assistance with flattening the curve of

high school dropouts.

It is to no surprise that “students who are economically disadvantaged, are English

learners . . . have consistently higher single-year dropout rates”3 but we can’t make them rich or

learn English overnight so what is the solution? Students should learn about finances and how to

budget/save their money and even invest. The more the student is involved with their possible

future the more apt they are to continue learning about the steps to achieve that said future. It

also goes with teaching them how to build a proper resume and how to prepare for an interview,

these are all subjects that can easily be incorporated into the school system already with the

FACS (Family and Consumer Science) courses in high school. There is also the possibility of

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high schools offering family services on their campus or maybe community rec centers offering

such services. Here in Utah, there is the Division of Youth Services (DYS) downtown, they have

low cost and free family support such as therapy. This is a very well used resource however,

farther cities such as Magna, Utah don’t have prevalent access to such resources and DYS saw

this issue so they began to reach out and see how they could possibly help. Thus, the Magna

Coalition was created and it is centered on how to help struggling students and families, the

village is helping to raise the children.

Economically disadvantaged families tend to have higher drug use and a student that falls

into both categories has an even higher probability of not graduating high school. In fact, 2,079

students in the United States did not graduate in 2018.4 Because those students didn’t graduate

they are at higher risk of becoming another statistic, this time with it being arrested for drug

abuse. Utah held the third highest juvenile arrest rate for drug abuse5 with 636 adolescents

arrested, which causes the shift in money for education to now money in the criminal justice

system. It’s a well-known probability that if a student drops out of school then they are most

likely involved with some sort of drug abuse either alcohol, narcotics, or something else. A good

solution for this issue would be for the school, or another location within the community, to host

prevention courses. Branching this out to families as a whole would be beneficial as well seeing

how the student isn’t the only one who may have these addictions in their family. Communities

in general don’t advertise these sort of prevention classes very well and that is a good contributor

to students not giving up their addictions and finishing school.

A very crucial solution is to simply get the parents more involved. Get the parents and

guardians involved as much as possible with their child’s education and how they can help, it

does no good if the student goes home and has very little support for education there.

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Communication is key in any relationship however, most parents don’t even know how to

properly communicate with their student about school in general. The classic, “how was your

day?” question, “Eh, it was alright” answer, this gets repeated daily and allows for no updates,

little concern to how their child is doing, and no motivation to keep going and do better. Parents

that get involved and talk with their children about school and allow them to be a part of their

own solution end up helping their student stay in school.6 Sure, it’s easy to say on paper how to

be a good and involved parent but it does help more to be involved with the teacher as well.

Teachers and parents should have clear communication on how their student(s) is doing in

school, if they are struggling they can come up with solutions together. As mentioned before,

counseling options should be available in high schools for the family to get that help for little to

no cost. There’s also the issue with many parents no knowing how to find their students’ grades,

a class should be offered by the school to help parents know how to properly stay updated on

their students’ grades and coursework.

These solutions can help significantly decrease the percentage of high school dropouts

however, there is, “no single type of intervention [that] can end our nation's dropout crisis”7. This

issue will be around for as long as time will go on mainly because not all students are motivated

to continue their high school education. Not all students see the benefit or need to continue grade

school and move on to a job, they may already have a job and are helping their family with bills,

they may get bullied on campus and don’t want to go back, or they may not have teachers that

are invested in helping them succeed. There are many issues within this issue of students

dropping out of school. The solutions posed earlier are all great and can be implemented but it

will be over time and needing money, they also are solutions for some but not all.

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 Although yes, this problem will most likely always be a subject there will always be

another solution that can help someone stay in high school and get their degree. I have

mentioned how to help low income families with resources and how to teach students how to

build a better future regarding money, how to properly prepare for an interview, and how

multiple communities can create prevention programs together. It was also discussed how drugs

are heavily correlated with dropping out and how classes should be offered to families on how to

deal with drug addiction. Another solution mentioned was having more parental involvement

with the struggling student(s) and their teachers, and to have clear, open communication with one

another. These are all great but they may not all work, it’s recognized that there are solutions to

this problem and they each have a potential for helping these students prevent drop out, but this

problem will always be here and each student needs a specific solution. Yet, if the village works

together and presents enough solutions then we can help this issue decrease and lives, money,

and health will be bountiful. And children (students) will be raised to reach their full potential

and become something more than they ever could have possibly imagined.

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