(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Restructuring Schools for Success after High School [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-04 The Misalignment of Schools and Society Restructuring Education for Success after High School By William Berkson and William Schillig High Dropout Rates All students should be prepared for success in life beyond high school: success in an immediate career, or success in further education leading to a productive career. However, our system currently fails to help a majority of students to achieve at least one of these critical goals. About 15% of American students don’t graduate high school on time (America’s Promise Alliance, 2020). And over 60% who start 2-year colleges, and nearly 40% who start 4-year colleges, fail to finish within 6 years (Nadworny, 2019). Currently, 63% of all high school graduates enroll in a 4 year college, and 20% go to community college (National Center for Education Statistics, 2021). Taken together, these numbers mean that 25.2% of all high school grads drop out of the 4 year colleges they chose, and 12% of all high school grads drop out of the the 2 year colleges they chose. Adding the 15% who drop out of high school, these mean that over half of students who begin high school do not go on to success immediately after high school. Added to the high dropout is an increasing decline in attendance. The AP recently published an alarming article on the tanking of school attendance rates, and consequent poor student performance. More than 25% of students missed at least one tenth of the 2021 school year—up from 15% high absentee rate before the pandemic. And high absenteeism is correlated with failure to learn to read, and later increased drop-out rates. These problems are greater among Latino, Black, and low-income students. Causes What causes the high drop-out rates, and recent falls in attendance rates? The causes are insufficiency in one or more of three critical ‘M’s: Motivation, Mastery and Money. By ‘Motivation’ we mean a clear student goal and the student’s determination to achieve it. Gallup surveys have documented a decline in motivation through the school years: while 3/4 of 5th graders are engaged in their studies, engagement steadily drops until only 1/3 of those in the last years of high school are engaged (Brenneman, 2016). And this fall in engagement is highly correlated with lower mastery of skills (Reckmeyer, 2019). Further internal motivation is far more powerful than external rewards and punishments, as psychologist Edward Deci found in his research, and reported in his book Why We Do What We Do. When a student is committed to a long-term goal, such as becoming a medical doctor, he or she will overcome multiple barriers and difficulties to pursue it. Lacking such aspirations, students become quickly discouraged by setbacks. By ‘Mastery’ we mean competence in the academic skills needed to pursue the student’s chosen goals. Finally, by ‘Money’ we mean funds directly to families of students, to students themselves, and funds to hire teachers and pay them well. 38% of college students drop out of college because of financial reasons—and this constitutes over 2/3 of the total college drop-outs. (iGrad Author, 2020) Solutions The key to strengthening student motivation we believe is student-chosen projects. These have proven to be highly engaging and enjoyable for students. And researchers J. Mehta and S. Fine (2019) have also found that project-based learning is necessary to acquire the ‘deeper learning’ skills of inquiry: creative problem-solving, critical thinking, and collaborative learning—skills critical in the world of work. If schools institute student-chosen projects in from second grade on, students can explore and discover the activities they have a passion for and talents in. Then, in middle school, students can, with school assistance, learn how their interests and abilities align with the world of work—post-high school and post-college careers. After exploration, by age 15 students should have a clear enough career goal to decide on what specialized training, courses, and projects to take in their last three high school years, since, as Deci found, commitment to a long-term goal is the key to sustained motivation (Deci, 1996). For Mastery of academic skills, the educational method known as Mastery Learning has proven most successful in assuring student acquisition of skills. In mastery learning, the student’s current skill level is first ascertained. Students are then taught the next higher level, and assessed. If they haven’t yet mastered that next higher level, they are immediately given ‘corrective’ or remedial coaching to master the skill. Thomas Guskey (2010) and other researchers found that students in well-implemented mastery learning programs “consistently reach higher levels of achievement.” Mastery learning needs to begin early, by second grade, so it can gently but persistently push students forward by a ‘gentle bulldozer,’ to, by age 15, mastering the foundational academic skills it takes to hold a career-track job in our economy. For project-based and mastery learning to be implemented successfully, we suspect the school day needs to be expanded by two hours to allow time for both of them. Schools in the ‘Every Hour Counts’ network of cities have already expanded days (Every Hour Counts, 2022.) Mornings can be devoted to academic instruction, midday hours to remedial coaching, enrichment, lunch, and play, and the final two hours devoted to student projects. In this schedule, teachers could work in shifts, with teachers for basic academics coming first, and with specialty teachers arriving later, and staying later to monitor and guide student projects. Implementation These changes will require considerable new investment, and we can’t expect the public and politicians to support this, unless there is proof of the transformative power of the changes. To fund and monitor pilot instructional programs, and to diversify and realign standards, we recommend creation of state and national Career-Education Alignment Commissions (CEAC, ‘seek’). The CEACs would include representatives from business, government, education, and military, who would consult other experts, and recommend new legislation, policies, and funding. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/4/2197315/-Restructuring-Schools-for-Success-after-High-School?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/