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How To Stop The Coming Dropout Time Bomb

How To Stop The Coming Dropout Time Bomb

By Douglas Reeves

October 18, 2020

Schools are facing an avoidable crisis – students dropping out of high school because of toxic policies that lead to a cascading series of failures that will undermine any reason for them to persist in their studies. When students to fail to complete high school, they face a lifetime of unemployment, poverty, increased health care needs, and greater involvement in the criminal justice system. If these students were inside a burning building, we would not convene focus groups, hire consultants, or begin a strategic plan. We would get them out of the burning building. There are only a few weeks left in the fall of 2020 to decide how to respond to this crisis.

 

There are three causes of the dropout time bomb: irrational attendance policies, the elevation of compliance over proficiency, and toxic grading policies. First, district attendance policies frequently require that after 10 unexcused absences, students will automatically fail a class. By October 2020, many students – in some schools as many as 80 percent - have already missed 10 days of class. For all the talk of equity over the past six months, these irrational policies remain in effect in schools across the land, dooming students to failure no matter how hard they work. Two decades after the United States made a commitment to standards-based education, most schools continue to prioritize seat time over proficiency. The achievement of standards means nothing, and in 2020, logging on or showing up means everything.

 

The second cause of the dropout time bomb is the elevation of compliance over proficiency. Closely linked to irrational attendance policies is the use of submitted work as the primary method of evaluating students. Conduct this simple experiment in your school: Look at a random sample of 30 students who are failing right now. While the stereotype of the failing student is one who is negligent, disruptive, or incapable of meeting teacher expectations, you will find that one of the most common causes of failure is none of these factors, but “missing work” – often work that is not related to student proficiency but highly related to their access to technology, connectivity, and support.

 

The third cause of the dropout time bomb is persistently irrational grading policies. The final grade for most high school students has little to do with their ability to solve an algebra equation, write a theme, or analyze historical events. The grade, almost always the average of performance throughout the semester, is a toxic cauldron of punishment for missing work, inscrutable or absent feedback for their mistakes, and a pervasive confidence in the efficacy of punishment for disobedience. A century ago, we administered corporal punishment, beating students who failed to toe the line. Today we administer academic corporal punishment. They have a chilling similarity: Although the bruises from corporal punishment heal, the psychological trauma can live on for years. Similarly, the consequences of dropouts due to academic corporal punishment can last a lifetime.

 

It doesn’t have to be this way. Educational leaders must take the following steps immediately. First, disable the automated systems that link absences – either physical absence or the failure to log on to virtual classes — to failure. Say it with me: Seat time doesn’t matter; proficiency does.

 

Second, disable grading systems that automatically calculate final semester grades based on the average scores of student work during the semester. Don’t listen to the vendors or technology department personnel who tell you it can’t be done or that it’s just the way the system is. Unplug the damn thing if you have to, but stop using the average to calculate final scores, and stop allowing anyone except the instructional leaders of your system to engage in instructional leadership.

 

Third, establish clear expectations for every class. It’s not 50 content standards or 80 items on a proficiency scale that students must achieve. Use the Power Standards approach that provides a concise set of six or so expectations for each class. If students fail to meet those, give them feedback on how to improve, and let them try again. If the targets are clear and the feedback is constructive, the vast majority can succeed. If you are asking students to climb from the depths of the Grand Canyon to the summit of Mount Everest – and that is what it feels like for many students in the fall of 2020 - they will find it easier to disengage. While the faculty is attending a workshop on social and emotional learning and hear another heartfelt lecture about equity, their students simply stop coming to school.

 

Do not be seduced by “credit recovery” or other facile measures that give schools the illusion of proficiency after students have failed. We can prevent failure right now. Our nation faces an avoidable crisis. The pandemic is bad, but a generation of dropouts will be even worse. There is no vaccine for a dropout. There is no bailout for the unemployable adolescent who gives up on school because educational leaders failed to intervene. Teachers and school leaders have done heroic work in 2020, and the nation is grateful. Let us not squander this goodwill by being bystanders to an avoidable tragedy.

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