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In the U.S., high school dropouts commit about 75% of crimes.

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A high school dropout will earn $200,000 less than a high school graduate over his lifetime. And almost a million dollars less than a college graduate.

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Every year, over 1.2 million students drop out of high school in the United States alone. That’s a student every 26 seconds – or 7,000 a day.

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The average American estimates they’ve forgotten nearly half (40 percent) of everything they learned in school growing up and only actually use 37 percent

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When it comes to a class on tax preparation or a calculus class, only 13 percent of Americans said they’d rather learn calculus.

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How to file taxes, managing your money, and even managing your mental well-being number among the top things Americans wish they had learned in school growing up, according to new research.

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According to AP’s analysis, girls were just as likely as boys to habitually miss school. Nearly 22 percent of all American Indian students were reported as regularly absent, followed by Native Hawaiians at 21 percent and black students at 17 percent. Hispanic and white students were close to the national average of 13 percent.

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“If you’re not there, you don’t learn, and then you fall behind, you don’t pass your classes, you don’t get the credits in high school and that’s what leads to dropping out,” Bob Balfanz says.

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an AP analysis finds the problem is particularly acute in the nation's capital, where nearly one-third of students were absent 15 days or more in a single school year.

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According to the poll, underclassmen were more likely to have never skipped a class than upperclassmen. About 21 percent of first-years and 19 percent of sophomores reported never having skipped class, while 8 percent of juniors and 10 percent of seniors chose that option.

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Margaret Klawunn, vice president for campus life and student services and interim dean of the College, said the poll showed more students regularly skipping class than she had expected.

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About one fourth of the student body skips class at least once a week, according to a Herald poll conducted March 3-4.

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Black, Hispanic, and American Indian and Alaskan Native fourth-graders were significantly more likely than white and Asian fourth-graders to say they felt awkward and out of place “all or most of the time”

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the majority of students at both grades say they are happy more than half the time, and the percentage of students who are “never or hardly ever” happy at school holds steady at 7 percent for both grades.

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While about half of fourth graders (49 percent) say they are happy in school “all or most of the time,” 26 percent of eighth graders say this

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11 facts about high school dropout rates

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11 Facts About High School Dropout Rates | DoSomething.org | Volunteer for Social Change

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Get high school dropout facts and statistics and learn why dropping out of high school can have negative affects on a young person's life. Find high school dropout prevention solutions.

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How to file taxes, managing your money, and even managing your mental well-being number among the top things Americans wish they had learned in school growing up, according to new research.

The revelation came from a survey of 2,000 Americans which found that many people thought their time in school could have been better spent learning more practical lessons.

Also numbering among the top five skills we wish we learned in school were how to negotiate, and better understanding of how student debt and loans really work.

The new survey, conducted by OnePoll on behalf of H&R Block, asked Americans about their schooling growing up and aimed to identify some skills that get thrown by the wayside in favor of traditional school subjects.

Amazingly, the average American says they learned nearly half of their current job skills on the job as opposed to in a classroom.

Not only that, 84 percent of Americans say that there are things they learned in school that they have never had to utilize in real life at all.

In fact, the survey asked Americans which courses they'd rather take when given a practical choice and a traditional choice and here is how those results shook out.

When it comes to a class on tax preparation or a calculus class, only 13 percent of Americans said they'd rather learn calculus.

And when asked to choose between a class on how to do household repairs and an algebra class, only 17 percent picked algebra.

Incredibly, the average American estimates they've forgotten nearly half (40 percent) of everything they learned in school growing up and only actually use 37 percent.

"It's clear from the results that a lot of Americans aren't as confident as they'd like to be when it comes to many day-to-day life skills, including how to file their own taxes," said Heather Watts, senior vice president and general manager of digital at H&R Block.

The Pythagorean theorem, knowing that PI is 3.14, and the periodic table numbers among the top "useless" things Americans learned in school, along with the types of rocks and knowing all of the US Presidents.

Nearly every American surveyed (89 percent) agrees that life would be a lot easier for them now had they learned more practical skills in high school, with the average American saying they don't actually grasp "adult" life skills until the age of 29.

This bleeds into our adult lives in many ways, but properly doing taxes appears to be a big source of anxiety for many Americans.

Over half of Americans (55 percent) say they currently file their taxes by themselves, but the vast majority of them fear they aren't doing them as efficiently as they could be.

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Majority Americans believe school curriculum is useless

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How to file taxes, managing your money, and even managing your mental well-being number among the top things Americans wish they had learned in school growing up, according to new research. The revelation came from a survey of 2,000 Americans which found that many people thought their time in school could have been better spent learning more practical lessons.

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WASHINGTON - The government is out with discouraging figures on how many students are habitually missing school - and an AP analysis finds the problem is particularly acute in the nation's capital, where nearly one-third of students were absent 15 days or more in a single school year.

Washington state and Alaska weren't that far behind, with absentee rates hovering around a quarter of students with that level of absences.

Florida had the lowest rate of absences: 4.5 percent of students in the state were chronically missing school in the 2013-2014 school year.

The national average in the 2013-2014 school year was 13 percent, more than 6.5 million students, a number that Bob Balfanz, a research professor at Johns Hopkins University and director of the Everyone Graduates Center, called disturbing.

"If you're not there, you don't learn, and then you fall behind, you don't pass your classes, you don't get the credits in high school and that's what leads to dropping out," Balfanz said in an interview.

Tuesday's report marked the first release of chronic absentee figures from the department.

According to AP's analysis, girls were just as likely as boys to habitually miss school. Nearly 22 percent of all American Indian students were reported as regularly absent, followed by Native Hawaiians at 21 percent and black students at 17 percent. Hispanic and white students were close to the national average of 13 percent.

Of the 100 largest school districts by enrollment, the Detroit City School District had the highest rate of chronic absenteeism. Nearly 58 percent of students were chronically absent in the 2013-2014 school year.

Students are regularly missing school for lots of reasons, Balfanz says. Many are poor and could be staying home to care for a sibling or helping with elder care. Others are avoiding school because they're being bullied or they worry it's not safe. And then, there are some students who simply skip school.

Schools should be creating welcoming environments to make students feel wanted each day, Balfanz says. They also need to build relationships with the kids who are regularly absent to figure out what's keeping them away, he said.

The Obama administration began a program last fall called Every Student, Every Day. It partners with states and local groups in 30 communities to identify mentors to help habitually absent kids get back on track.

Chronic absenteeism is one of several topics covered in the department's Civil Rights Data Collection, a biannual survey of all public schools in the country, covering over 95,000 schools and 50 million students. It also looked at school discipline and high-rigor course offerings.

Other figures:

Black preschool children are 3.6 times as likely to get one or more out-of-school suspensions as their white counterparts.

Black children represent 19 percent of preschoolers, yet they account for 47 percent of preschool kids getting suspended.

White students make up 41 percent of preschoolers, and 28 percent of preschool kids with suspensions.

Overall, across the country, 2.8 million K-12 students received one or more out-of-school suspensions - a nearly 20 percent drop from the number reported two years ago.

Nationwide, almost half of high schools offered classes in calculus, and more than three-quarters offered Algebra II.

Thirty-three percent of high schools with substantial black and Latino enrollment offered calculus. That compares to 56 percent of high schools with low numbers of black and Latino children that offered calculus. Similar gaps were seen for physics, chemistry and Algebra II.

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Data reveals how many U.S. students chronically miss school

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The government is out with discouraging figures on how many students are habitually missing school - and an AP analysis finds the problem is particularly acute in the nation's capital, where nearly one-third of students were absent 15 days or more in a single school year.

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About one fourth of the student body skips class at least once a week, according to a Herald poll conducted March 3-4.

Roughly 14 percent of respondents reported that they skip class once a week, 11 percent skip more than once a week and 1 percent skip class every day. But around 15 percent of students have never skipped class, with 34 percent skipping class less than once a month and 26 percent skipping class once or twice a month.

Campus was divided in reactions to the poll results, with students variously anticipating both higher and lower numbers of students skipping class regularly. Others indicated they thought the results aligned with their expectations.

"It's a privilege to attend classes taught by skilled professors," said Christopher Dennis, deputy dean of the College, adding that with the freedom the open curriculum provides for both coursework and grade options, Brown students should have less reason to skip class.

Justin Juan '16 said he finds it implausible that one third of the student body skips class less than once a month, adding that he thought students attend less frequently.

But Preston Law '17 said he was surprised that such a large portion of students skip class once a week or more.

"Why would you cut at Brown? There are no limits on choice," said Kathleen McSharry, associate dean of the College for writing and curriculum.

Margaret Klawunn, vice president for campus life and student services and interim dean of the College, said the poll showed more students regularly skipping class than she had expected.

According to Klawunn, one motivation behind skipping class may be that students do not find some classes stimulating enough.

Anderson said students skip class because they believe they would benefit more from employing their time in different ways, such as learning the course material on their own.

Kevin Yan '17 expressed similar sentiments, saying he might skip class if he already knew the material being taught.

Klawunn said the University maintains the expectation that students attend class, and holds them accountable for keeping up with course material, even during shopping period. But University policy leaves the job of monitoring class attendance and weighting attendance and participation to the discretion of individual professors, she added.

Many students said they try to attend all classes in order to keep up with coursework, and most students said they avoid skipping smaller classes that take attendance.

Neha Verma '16 said she consistently attends class "not because I'm a goody-goody," but because she does not want to have to catch up with missed material outside of class.

Attending class is necessary to keep up with the course material, Law said, adding that he never misses class.

But the reasons for attending classes go beyond participation grades and the maintaining good relations with professors.

The learning environment at Brown depends on each student contributing to the learning environment, McSharry said. In failing to attend class, students are "not fully fulfilling their responsibility to their peers," she added.

"I wouldn't skip because I came to Brown for the academic experience," Verma said.

The University combats this problem by seeking a pedagogy that ensures that class time is put to good use, including promoting new experimental courses that use class time for collaboration on problem sets rather than lectures, Klawunn said. One section of ECON 1110: "Intermediate Microeconomics" was taught using this flipped classroom model last semester with positive feedback from students, The Herald previously reported.

According to the poll, underclassmen were more likely to have never skipped a class than upperclassmen. About 21 percent of first-years and 19 percent of sophomores reported never having skipped class, while 8 percent of juniors and 10 percent of seniors chose that option.

"The sun still shines tomorrow if you don't go to class today," said Saudi Garcia '14. Some things can take precedence over spending time in class, she said, adding that she skipped an entire day of class to write her senior thesis.

But Garcia said class is often more important than other extracurricular commitments. "We're students first."

Though Yan does not skip class often, he said he now feels more comfortable missing a day in his second semester at Brown than he did when he first arrived.

Megan Marshall '15 said she skips class less often as an upperclassmen due to the increasing difficulty of her coursework, but she agrees that upperclassmen are more at ease missing class than underclassmen.

But because students beyond their first semesters are more able to choose classes they fing truly engaging, Verma said she skips class less in her second year at Brown. Upperclassmen who have had more time as college students know how to choose better classes, take advantage of the open curriculum and understand which types of courses suit their learning styles, she said.

One of the reasons students cut class could be that they are overcommitted to extracurricular activities, McSharry said, adding that when students fail to limit their commitments, they jeopardize their health, extracurriculars and academic performance.

Verma said her extracurricular activities sometimes take precedence over academic priorities.

And Yan said that when he struggles to balance his extracurricular commitments with his classes, he ends up sacrificing sleep.
A previous version of this article failed to provide context for Saudi Garcia's '14 comments. Though she said skipping class can be acceptable under certain circumstances, she also emphasized the importance of attending class most of the time.

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Busy schedules, boring lectures drive students to skip classes

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About one fourth of the student body skips class at least once a week, according to a Herald poll conducted March 3-4. Roughly 14 percent of respondents reported that they skip class once a week, 11 percent skip more than once a week and 1 percent skip class every day.

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(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Do kids like school?

The only way to know is to ask them, and that's the aim of surveys conducted by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, NAEP, a test known as "the nation's report card" because it is seen as the most consistent nationally representative measure of U.S. student achievement since the 1990s.

The NAEP is administered every two years to groups of U.S. students in the fourth and eighth grades, and less frequently to high school students - with math and reading exams administered every two years and assessments in science, writing, the arts, civics, economics, geography, technology and engineering literacy, and U.S. history less often.

Along with actual exam questions, surveys are attached to assess student attitudes about different parts of their educational experience. On the reading test, for example, kids might be asked how often they read for fun.

In this post, Indiana University mathematics education professor Sarah Lubienski looks at some of the data from the recently released 2017 test results about how happy students are at school. Some of the results may surprise you.

The achievement results of the 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), released in April, received much attention. However, a lesser-known aspect of NAEP is its survey of students' experiences and attitudes, including two new questions about students' happiness and sense of belonging at school. Although such aspects are not often the focus of NAEP analyses, they merit attention. And they are underscored by a recent study in Pediatrics journal indicating a major rise in children's hospitalization related to suicide, with incidents most likely to occur during school months, and with increases larger for girls than for boys.

With its large, nationally representative samples, the latest NAEP survey results can help us take stock of U.S. students' sense of well-being in school. The 2017 NAEP contained separate math and reading samples, but for simplicity, here I focus on data from the nearly 300,000 fourth- and eighth-graders who took the mathematics assessment.

Are U.S. students happy at school?

The extent to which students are happy at school depends on whether we look at students in fourth or eighthgrade. While about half of fourth graders (49 percent) say they are happy in school "all or most of the time," 26 percent of eighth graders say this (Table 1).

Still, the majority of students at both grades say they are happy more than half the time, and the percentage of students who are "never or hardly ever" happy at school holds steady at 7 percent for both grades.

Some scholars and parents have argued that schools are biased against boys because girls are better able to sit and work diligently. The data is mixed on whether boys or girls are happier. At grade 4, more girls (75 percent) than boys (66 percent) report being happy at school over half the time, but in grade 8, significantly more boys (59 percent) than girls (54 percent) report this.

Do U.S. students feel awkward at school?

The NAEP survey asked students if they "felt awkward and out of place" at school. Unlike with happiness and popular conceptions of middle school as a time of awkward adolescence, there is no strong tendency to feel less comfortable at school in grade 8 than in grade 4. However, as with happiness, we again see a slight negative progression for girls, with 57 percent of girls reporting they never or hardly ever feel awkward during grade 4 but 46 percent of girls reporting this at grade 8 (Table 2).

Findings for Students of Color

Given concerns about the marginalization of students of color, it makes sense to examine the NAEP survey data by race and ethnicity. The results reveal a similar pattern of decline from the fourth-grade to the eighth-grade samples, regardless of race or ethnicity (Table 3). However, Hispanic and Asian students tended to report significantly greater happiness in school than other groups at grade 4. However, few significant differences occurred in the eighth-grade sample, although Asian students (4 percent) were significantly less likely than others (7 to 11 percent) to report "never or hardly ever" being happy at school.

Black, Hispanic, and American Indian and Alaskan Native fourth-graders were significantly more likely than white and Asian fourth-graders to say they felt awkward and out of place "all or most of the time" and significantly less likely to say they "never or hardly ever" felt out of place. Most strikingly, black fourth-graders (15 percent) were more than twice as likely as white fourth-graders (7 percent) and three times as likely as Asian fourth-graders (5 percent) to report feeling awkward and out of place "all or most of the time." However, at grade 8, this pattern did not hold.

A closer look at differences in fourth-grade feelings of awkwardness by race

Given that black fourth-graders were particularly likely to report feelings of awkwardness, and given that white students are most likely to attend school with teachers and students who look like them, it makes sense to further examine black-white differences in feeling awkward at school.

The NAEP data indicate that students eligible for subsidized lunch (12 percent) are twice as likely as ineligible students (6 percent) to report feeling awkward or out of place "all or most of the time."

Black students are more likely than white students to be eligible for subsidized lunch because of their family's low income, but as shown in Table 5, black-white differences in feeling awkward at school persist within the lunch-eligibility categories, with ineligible black students (11 percent) more than twice as likely as ineligible white students (5 percent) to report feeling awkward in school. Hence, black-white differences in feeling out of place in school do not seem to simply be the result of family economic differences.

One might suspect that black-white differences in awkwardness at school are the result of black students' constituting a minority of students in the school. However, black students report more awkwardness in schools with more than 50 percent black students than in other schools (Table 6).

Surprisingly, white students report feeling less awkward in school, even in those containing more than 50 percent black students.

Hence, there appears to be something about the experiences of black students in elementary schools, regardless of the student composition of those schools, that is making these children feel out of place at school.

The data show a stark decline in happiness in school from grade 4 to grade 8, along with a lesser sense of belonging in elementary schools among black students that is not explained by student poverty or school racial composition.

Teachers and administrators in elementary schools that serve these students and those in middle schools across the board appear to need additional resources and support to create a sense of belonging among students. The data also suggest that girls, in particular, may need additional socio-emotional supports as they progress from grades 4 to 8.

These data hold an additional implication regarding school desegregation. Some might wonder whether a downside of desegregation is that black students feel more awkward in schools with relatively few black students. These data suggest otherwise, removing one potential argument against school desegregation.

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Analysis | Are American kids happy in school? New data tells a surprising story.

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Do kids like school? The only way to know is to ask them, and that's the aim of surveys conducted by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, NAEP, a test known as "the nation's report card" because it is seen as the most consistent nationally representative measure of U.S.