 It is not uncommon to see a seventeen-year old in high school with only seven credits. The graduation rate is decreasing, and teenagers aren't getting an education. In 2000, 10.5 percent of teenagers, nationally, dropped out of high school. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, five out of every 100 young adults enrolled in high school in October 1999 left school before October 2000 without successfully completing a high school program. While another article by Washington Square Review found that 65 percent of New York City's minority youth do not graduate from high school on time. "It's bad bec0ause number one, we don't have [any] books," Charles Barnett, a noted former senior of Canarsie high school, said. "Teachers don't really care [and] half the students don't go to class. We don't have [any] real leadership. The principal [doesn't] do [anything] he just sits in his office." Gary Orfield, the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University, and Christopher Swanson, the Urban Institute, found that about 50 percent of black, Hispanic, and Native American students fail to earn high school diplomas, as reported in the American School Board Journal (ASBJ). In New York City, one in six young people are neither attending school nor working. They sometimes do so undetected. Several parents are never aware that their child is not in school during the day, and schools usually do not make enough of a deal out of it. A program known as Attendance Improvement and Dropout Prevention (AIDP) provides funding for schools to improve their attendance rates and reduce their dropout rates. Yet, a report has found a "weakness in the Department's distribution of funds." Some schools received less than they were budgeted and some received no funding at all, while others received more than they were allowed. "The NY Board of Education is ill-equipped to educate our young people," Mr. Robert Hooks, youth director of St. Paul Community Baptist church, said. "It's an inadequate system." They come up with systems without taking into account that children aren't systematic and everyone doesn't learn the same way." Related links Rise And Shine Behind the dropout rate New York City public education suffers from a limited amount of funding. The result is schools which are ill-equipped as well as in poor conditions. These conditions combined with over-crowded schools cause the children to suffer educationally. "Teachers don't have a chance to focus on every kid individually," Miranda Catabois, a junior at Edward R. Murrow High School, said. "Some kids need that individual attention because they can't be responsible for themselves." With the passing of the No Child Left Behind Act in January 2002, schools are now being held responsible for whether or not students graduate as well as their performances on assessment tests. Yet, according to national statistics, one-third of public high school students fail to graduate, with males graduating at a significantly lower amount (8%) than females. "I don't learn anything," Jaeson Williams, a senior at Science Skills High School said. "They teach the same thing every year. It's boring if you are going to learn the same thing you already know."  Curriculum within the schools is at times ineffective, and often teenagers cannot relate to the way things are being presented to them. In teenagers of color, they rarely find one familiar person to connect or identify with unless it is Black History Month. Yet, even with that the same leaders are talked about year after year. Many students who aren't in college-prep classes feel that what is being taught to them has no use for them in the real world. Thus, this belief is readily reflected in their school performance overall. Barnett said, he believes that what teachers teach have "no relation to life down the road." High schools are not reaching teenagers effectively and the result is a generation of people who are not educated to the best of their ability. Teachers need to realize the importance of their relationships with the students. When students do not connect with the personnel they do not connect to the material. Graduation rates are decreasing along with standards and the legitimacy of a high school diploma. "It's going down. The standards are being lowered and mediocracy is the order of the day," Ms. Angela Roberson, an English teacher at Transit Tech High School, said. "There are some teachers that pass students that have been absent 15 or 20 times." Kyia Jones, a junior at Canarsie High School said, she finds there are students who cannot even read aloud. "The boy was trying to read [the word] 'satellite' and he couldn't and the whole class just laughed at him ." This is no laughing matter when seventeen year olds cannot read or understand basic skills. According to the American Diploma Project, 60 percent of employers question whether a diploma means students have learned academic basics. They have also found that more than 70 percent of high school graduates go immediately to two- or four-year colleges or universities. But 28 percent of them have to take remedial English and math courses before they can start their regular college work. An article in Washington Square Review noted that the amount of people under the age of 24, who are neither working nor enrolled in school, is also increasing. There is a crisis going on within the walls of New York City's high schools. There is clearly a problem when the attitude of a majority of young people is in agreement with Jose Vinicio, a sophomore at Franklin K. Lane high school. "I think we shouldn't have school, it's a waste of time."
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Hire teachers who want to make learning fun and relevant to these kids on their level and for real world practical use.
Teach kids about personal finance to make them like math. I wish I had that when I was in school.
Show them how to write a resume even if they don't have actual job experience yet, for language arts. Get these volunteer after school programs going again and win back our schools to make them places where kids consider them a springboard for life, personally and professionally.