Fowler High School (above), on Syracuse’s Near West Side, has a drop-out rate of 38 percent — the highest in the city. (Liam Migdail-Smith)
When Robert Jones transferred from Marcellus High School to West Genesee High School, he started hanging out with the “wrong crowd.”
He was disappointed with teachers, he recalls, who barely noticed him. He started skipping school, uninterested in classes. He got into a serious fight. At age, 17, Jones dropped out.
“I had to get away,” Jones said.
Jones’ story is all too familiar in American education. “It’s a national tragedy in Syracuse and in all of our urban centers,” says Daniel Lowengard, superintendent of Syracuse City School District.
Each year, Lowengard and other education experts say, city schools in Syracuse and across the country lose about 30 percent of their students. That’s a sharp contrast to suburban schools, where the drop-out rate is closer to 10 percent.
Among the reasons for cities’ higher drop-out rate: Poverty. Embarrassment among struggling students and a preconceived notion that a diploma just won’t help a bleak situation.
Among the consequences: Yet another generation of inner city youngsters — especially young minority men — shut out of the American mainstream.
Among the possible solutions: More support for what advocates describe as an underfunded, loosely-woven patchwork of programs.
The statistics — from the city, the state and the federal departments of education — paint a bleak picture:
- Nationwide, 29 percent of students drop out of high school.
- Nationwide, 1.2 million young adults will drop out of high school in a given year.
- In Syracuse, 30 percent of students drop out of high school and only 50 percent graduate in four years.
- That’s a loss of more than 600 students a year from Syracuse public high schools, according to the New York State Education Department.
- By comparison, Onondaga County’s suburban, more affluent districts like Fayetteville and Cicero have dropout rates between nine and 10 percent.
In terms of who is dropping out, New York State does not calculate dropout rates by race or economic standing. But Arthur Paris, a Syracuse University sociology professor, has found in his research that non-white males are the most likely to drop out of Syracuse public high schools. Non-white males’ drop-out rate, Paris found in a study in 2007, was 60 percent. That’s double the district average.
“Non-white males are really the main ones being affected by this,” said Paris, “and poverty is definitely a huge part of it.”
Stacy Levin, a veteran counselor at Fowler High School, agrees. Every day, she sees the effects of poverty on many of her students. “You’re talking about students who don’t have intact families, students who are responsible for younger siblings and getting them to school on time, students who are supporting themselves, students who are hungry,” said Levin.
Fowler is in one of the city’s poorest areas, the Near West Side. The area has a poverty rate of 27 percent, according to U.S. Census data. In Fowler, 65 percent of students are from families with incomes low-enoughto qualify for free or subsidized lunches. And Fowler has the city’s highest drop-out rate: 38 percent.
Other common reasons for dropping out, say counselor Levin and other experts, include embarrassment about falling behind, a lack of role models and doubt about a diploma’s usefulness. Students will see their friends graduate high school without a job, Fowler counselor Levin said, and think, “What’s the point?”
As for solutions, federal and local players advocate for many approaches. Among them:
- Say Yes to Education
This is the city’s premier effort to curb dropout rates. It launched here in 2008 as part of a national initiative. Say Yes guarantees college tuition to city students who graduate. So far, more than 700 city students graduated and are attending college through Say Yes to Education.
One criticism of Say Yes is that it doesn’t provide enough alternative education or vocational training. Otis Jennings, a recent candidate for mayor and former director of Syracuse Parks and Recreation, supports Say Yes but argues that more emphasis needs to be put on military and vocational training. “We need to expand and broaden the opportunities we make available,” Jennings said. “We have to have viable alternatives for students who don’t want to go to college.”
- Youth Build
One such alternative is the federally funded program called Youth Build. The program was recently resurrected in Syracuse by a $750,000 federal grant. Youth Build accepts only 20 high school dropouts a year. That’s just three percent of the 600 students who drop out. Participants take preparation courses for the General Equivalency Diploma tests and learn the construction trade. They also receive a $180 per week education and a work stipend
Program director Melvin Baker says that many of the kids need the money for food or to help support a family. The program provides an alternative to traditional high school but its goal, Baker said, is the same: Keep young adults focused on their future. “We’re working with many young people who rebel against the system of mainstream education,” said Baker. “But at the end of the day the majority of those kids still want structure, still want someone to be on them and say—‘Look you can do this, you have value.’”
- Other federal programs:
AVID targets students in the academic middle, typically students with grades of B, C and D. The program enrolls students in honors and advanced-placement classes. It also provides study support. Syracuse’s AVID program has grown from 20 students to 2,000 over the past six years said Michael Robbins, the Syracuse City School District AVID coordinator.
Race to the Top gives $4 billion dollars a year to public schools nationally. That’s just one percent of what is spent yearly on public schools, according to the Department of Education Web site.
The Graduation for All Act was introduced in early November in Congress. If passed, it would distribute $2 billion to underachieving schools, mostly in urban districts, to keep youngsters in school. The measure is now in the House Committee on Education and Labor.
For West Genesee dropout, Robert Jones, leaving school was a self-preservation tactic—a way to separate himself from the bad crowd he’d joined. Now, Jones is in Youth Build learning a trade.
For Jones, the program was the second chance he was waiting for. “I’m way more productive now,” he said.
The tight-knit crew of 20 at Youth Build feels like a family to him, he said, especially during roundtable Fridays where social chatter mixes with more serious talk of hopes, dreams and obstacles. As for Jones’ aspirations, after the program ends, he wants to either work in construction, become a motorcycle mechanic or join the military. But first he has to get that graduate equivalent diploma. He took the exam in November.
“I think I did good,” said Jones. “ I’m just hoping and waiting now.”
(Julia Terruso is a junior with dual majors in newspaper journalism and political science.)
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