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New Dropout Statistics Make Clear: The Time to Act is Now
PICO organizations throughout California call for focused local and state efforts to make tackling dropout rate a top priority
LOS ANGELES -- California has taken an important step today in the state's efforts to understand and address the dropout crisis plaguing many of our schools and communities. With the release of accurate high school dropout information for every school and district in the state, we no longer have to guess about how many students leave school without earning a diploma. Now, we can move forward with the important work of making sure all students have the opportunities and supports they need to graduate high school and lead full and productive lives.
"Reducing the dropout rate is everyone's business and having accurate data is an important first step," Eva Vargas said speaking at today's press conference on behalf of PICO California, a faith-based communityorganizing network working to improve communities throughout the state. Ms. Vargas is a member of PICO in San Diego, where she is working with others in the San Diego Organizing Project to convene a communitywide task force on youth issues. Ms. Vargas knows first-hand the causes and the consequences of students dropping out of school. Her grandson stopped attending school this year when he felt unsafe and disconnected from his high school. "We have too many gangs and too many opportunities for our teenagers to fall through the cracks and not enough mentors and other adults who can support youth who are in trouble and at risk of dropping out of school," Ms. Vargas said.
Seetha Ream-Rao, a high school junior in Sacramento and a member of PICO affiliate Sacramento Area Congregations Together (ACT), is working locally to make sure that addressing the dropout crisis a top priority for her community and for city and school officials. Ream-Rau is the chairperson of Sacramento ACT's education working group, which is comprised of community members, students, teachers, and parents. The group is researching strategies that have been used successfully elsewhere in the country to reduce dropout rates. One key piece of this effort is to work with district officials to identify students early, in the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th grades, who are at risk of dropping out, either because of grades, attendance, or course credits and then to work with parents and staff to support those students.
"Without good information about who drops out and who graduates, we won't be able to develop strategies to address the problem and we won't be able to measure our progress towards making sure that all students graduate high school," Ream-Rao said.
Throughout California, PICO organizations are engaged in efforts to improve educational opportunities and outcomes for all students – and to realize every young person's dream of earning a high school diploma. "We know that there is much work to be done to reach our goal of having every student graduate high school prepared for college or meaningful work," said Father Jesús Hernández, pastor of Saint Louis Bertrand Catholic Church in Oakland and a member of PICO affiliate Oakland Community Organizations. "For too many of our youth, high school graduation seems out of reach – a dream that will never be realized," he added. "When young people drop out of school, it's like handing them over to gangs and to the streets. That's not an acceptable option – not for our youth or for our communities."
Over the coming weeks and months, PICO organizations throughout California will be convening local forums to engage parents, students, teachers, and others throughout their communities on the causes and solutions to the high number of youth dropping out of school.
"As people of faith, we believe we have an individual and a collective responsibility to be part of the solution to addressing the dropout issue," Ms. Vargas said. "This isn't just a crisis for our schools or for our students and their families. It's a crisis that affects each of us and that each of us has to help solve." Ms. Vargas called upon state officials to reconsider proposed cuts to education in light of the pressing need in our schools and the unacceptable number of students who do not make it to graduation. "Now is not the time to reduce our investment in schools and youth. Now is the time to recommit ourselves to doing whatever it takes to support our students and our future."
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PICO California is the united effort of 20 California faith-based community organizations representing over 350 congregations and more than 450,000 families statewide. PICO leaders are actively organizing in 72 cities and 30 school districts in Northern, Central, and Southern California. For more than 10 years PICO California has worked to improve opportunities for low-income and working families in the state. PICO California is affiliated with the PICO National Network.
In the area of education, PICO California works for equitable and consistent funding for schools, improved collection and reporting of data, supports for alternative models of schools that meet the needs of all students, after school programs and other services and supports for students, and increased parent engagement in schools throughout the state. In 2005, PICO California, working with the Parent-Teacher Home Visit Project and the California Teachers Association, secured $15 million in the state budget to support the Nell Soto Parent-Teacher Involvement Program.
