President Obama’s call to keep high school students in school until graduation or age 18 may support his college completion goals but is not, by itself, a cure-all to the high school dropout problem, analysts say.
“It’s a proposal that already intrigues many states,” said Jennifer Dounay Zinth, senior policy analyst for the Education Commission of the States. “But it will have a marginal effect on its own,” she told Diverse, adding that it may succeed only if states and schools can “make school more meaningful for students.”
In his annual State of the Union address, the president said no state should allow students to leave school at age 16 or 17, prior to high school graduation. More than half of the states permit students to leave school before age 18, before they would earn a diploma.
“When students are not allowed to drop out, they do better,” Obama said. “We also know that, when students don’t walk away from their education, more of them walk the stage to get their diploma.”
The dropout issue is particularly acute for students of color, based on data from the National Council of State Legislatures. Among all U.S. youth in 2008, 18 percent of Hispanics, 15 percent of American Indians and 10 percent of African-Americans were not attending high school and did not have a high school credential, the council says. The corresponding rate for White and Asian youths was less than 5 percent.
But even in states with age 18 compulsory attendance laws, it is difficult to enforce the policy, according to Zinth. “It’s not a silver bullet, though it could have some impact,” she said.
Yet states can take other steps to stem the tide of dropouts, she said. In at least three states, districts with low high school graduation rates must submit to state intervention and a collaborative process to develop effective strategies to keep students in school.
