Critical Topic 4

Critical Project 4
Dropout Rates Among Minorities
By Kendra Bristol

There are many reasons why the dropout rate among minority groups group are high at such an alarming rate. Lack of parents involvement, language, and teachers, are some of the reasons that contributes to the dropout rates among many students in public schools. Parents plays a very important role in a child's life.
A parent’s duty is to protect, love, and nurture their child, so that a child can function in society. When it comes to education a parent should stress the importance of obtaining a good education and make sure they establish a firm foundation. If the parents do not believe in education how will the students believe. Also playing a major role in the dropout rate is the parent's income. Parents income too play a major role in the dropout rate.
Linver, Fuligni and Brooks- Gunn (2004) stated that one of the major related issues is disparity between test scores of African American and European American children, which still persists, though diminished, after accounting for income and other family background differences (pg 25). This occurs because a parent might be poor which causes discrimination. This discrimination can be based on race, nationality, and class. However, this is one of the major reasons in relationship with parents that cause the dropout rates among minorities groups in public schools.
Gollnick and Chinn (2008) described language as a system of vocal sound and/ or non verbal system by which members communicate with one another (pg 200). Acceptable language or should I say Standard English is what the public schools in America base their rules and regulations. Many of the minority students have some type of dialect because English was not their first language and there are many that do not speak English at all. So this pose a big problem in public schools. Communication between student to student might not be a problem because many of them understands and communicate with each other because they are speak non standard English, bilingual, or ebonics. With this said socializing with peers is not the issue. The issue here is what the public schools accept as being acceptable. This is where the teachers plays the important role of teaching the students what are needed to meet these acceptable standards.
On the path on of becoming a Teacher I believe that the number one goal should be willing to commit and make a change in a student's life. However, According to the National Center for Education Statistics nearly half of all teachers quit during their first five years. If the teachers are quitting at such a rapid rate how will the students build trust in their teachers and learn. Some teachers are just in it for the pay, not for the best interest of these students. So as a result there will be poor grades, language that are not acceptable and high dropout rate.
Minority students in public schools are faced with numerous problems that helps contributes to the high dropout rate. But if parents, teachers and the community come together to tackle this problem; I believe the outcome for minority students would be different. I am aware that there is research being done and programs that are in place to help minority students, but, however, from my point of view, this process is very slow and dropout rates are getting higher. I propose that a parent should take the time out and look into their child's performance by attending parent meetings, and requesting a monthly progress report from the child's teacher. Furthermore, parents should take time out of their busy schedule to sit, talk and prepare activities that will help in better communication; also help to convey information to their child where the teacher was not able to.
Teachers should also be willing to invest their time in students and not quit when thing seems tough. This will help build a relationship of trust. Because this shows the students that someone cares and there is someone that they can count on. Teachers should create activities and have patients to sit and explain to students what are expected of them. Also try to build a relationship with parents at the beginning of the term.
Students should also be willing to learn and show respect to both parents and teachers. So that it will help motivate them to teach and invest in them. It should not be a one way path where student are the only one who benefit; but a continuous path where communication, agreement, diversity and learning can grow.






Reference


Gollnick, D. M. & Chinn, P. C. (2008). Multicultural education in a pluralistic society (8th ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill / Pearson

Kaufman, P., Kwon, J. Y., Klein, S., Chapman, C. D. (1999). Fast Facts: Dropout Rates. Retrieved October 11th 2009 from The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) website: http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/

Linver, M. R., Fuligni, A. S., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (2004). How do parents matter? Income, interactions, and intervention during early childhood. In D. Conley & K. Albright (Eds.), After the bell: Family background, public policy and educational success, (pp. 25-50). New York, NY: Routledge.