It's crunch time!

The first day back from Spring Break is always a wake-up call for me. In the back of my mind I know that the end of the year is coming, but Spring Break always seems to block it from my view. Now that the break is over, it's a sprint to the finish line. The urgency to get our students to read and math at their necessary level is really a matter of life or death by the end of 2nd grade. 

According to the American Educational Research Association, "A student who can't read on grade
level by 3rd grade is four times less likely to graduate by age 19 than a child who does read proficiently by that time. Add poverty to the mix, and a student is 13 times less likely to graduate on time than his or her proficient, wealthier peer."

Here are some facts about "Dropping out" of school. 

1. More than 1.3 million students drop out of high school every year in the US.
2. More than 20% of dropouts are foreign born. Another 17% are Hispanic students.
3. A high-school dropout is ineligible for 90% of jobs in America.
4. In 2009, the Northeast had a lower status dropout rate (7.1%) than the South and the West (8.4% and 8.6%, respectively
5. After World War II, the United States had the #1 high school graduation rate in the world. Today, we have dropped to #22 among 27 industrialized nations. 
6. 16- to 24-year-old boys made up nearly 60% of dropouts in 2010. That’s more than 1.8 million students
7. The percentage of students enrolling in college in the fall immediately following high school completion was 68.2% in 2011. Females enrolled at a higher rate (72.2%) than males (64.7%).
8. Roughly 80% of white and Asian students complete high school, compared to 55% African-American and Hispanic students.
9. A high-school graduate’s lifetime income is 50 to 100% higher than a non-graduate’s.

There needs to be a sense of urgency. It is not an issue of students "dropping out." It's an issue of us letting them down. We say that Viking PRIDE starts at JCP. In reality, their opportunities for a successful life start here. 

Sources:

• 1 
  PBS. "Who Isn’t Graduating From High School?." PBS. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/education/dropout-nation/who-isnt-graduating-from-high-school/ (accessed July 22, 2014).
• 2 
  "High School Dropout Statistics." Statistic Brain RSS. http://www.statisticbrain.com/high-school-dropout-statistics/ (accessed July 21, 2014).
• 3 
  "High School Dropout Statistics." Statistic Brain RSS. http://www.statisticbrain.com/high-school-dropout-statistics/ (accessed July 21, 2014).
• 4 
  Cullinan, Bernice E. "Independent Reading and School Achievement", American Association of School Librarians. Accessed February 2014. .
• 5 
  "Fast Facts." National Center for Education Statistics. http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=372 (accessed July 22, 2014).
• 6 
  "Fast Facts." National Center for Education Statistics. http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=372 (accessed July 22, 2014).
• 7 
  "The Broad Foundation - Education." The Broad Foundation - Education. http://www.broadeducation.org/about/crisis_stats.html (accessed July 22, 2014).
• 8 
  Hanson, Jack. "Why Children are Left Behind." Bloomington: AuthorHouse, 2014. Print.
• 9 
  "Higher Education: Gaps in Access and Persistence Study." National Center for Education Statistics. http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2012/2012046.pdf (accessed July 22, 2014).
• 10 
  The New York Times. "The True Cost Of High School Dropouts." The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/opinion/the-true-cost-of-high-school-dropouts.html (accessed July 22, 2014)
• 11 
  The New York Times. "The True Cost Of High School Dropouts." The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/opinion/the-true-cost-of-high-school-dropouts.html (accessed July 22, 2014).