Teachers: not enough resources to help students who are disengaged

More student supports identified as key to tackling dropout problem.

by Clarisse Mesa

Three District high school teachers offered their perspectives on the problem of dropouts in a discussion with the Notebook, August 2.

Together, they painted a picture of schools that, despite the dedicated efforts of staff, simply are not adequately equipped to deal with students who are disengaging from school or not coming to school.

Kathy Brooks is a ninth-grade special edu cation teacher and senior-class sponsor at Fels. Michael Spangenberg has served as roster chair and English teacher at FitzSimons and Rhodes. Geoffrey Winikur, formerly at Gratz, is now a teacher at Parkway Northwest High School for Peace and Social Justice.

These three teachers were invited to participate based on their roles as teacher leaders, their range of teaching experience, and their willingness to discuss out-of-school-youth with the Notebook.

Lack of engagement, lack of support

Brooks noted that students who know they are going to college “will go to World History, even if it's boring.” However, the teacher participants agreed that many students in District schools do not see schoolwork as meaningful or relevant to their lives.

Meanwhile, some students are influenced by incentives outside of school and are enticed by more immediate means to an end, the teachers pointed out. “One (of my students) was making money – some on the corner, some of it legitimate,” said Winikur. “His mother just gave up on trying to get him to stay in school, and he thought he could make it big in that world.”

On the other hand, many students do believe that education is powerful, but do not believe that they can do it themselves, Spangenberg noted. Students may have experienced a lack of success in school and “are not able to do what they need to do.”

Spangenberg discussed the increased expectations and credit requirements of high school. “When you finally start holding them to a level that they haven't been held to in middle school and they don't just get passed along, they're frustrated, and they're at an age when their parents can't really stop them (from dropping out),” he stated.

And in high school, students face both higher expectations and less support. Brooks observed that teachers need to show an interest in students as individuals, but the participants agreed, “You just can't give attention to all of them.” The guidance counselors cannot give every student attention, either.

“It's tough for advisors and guidance counselors to follow up,” said Spangenberg. “Guidance counselors end up like social workers, and they have enough to do. They make home visits, but it's tough because so many students are out (of school) so much.”

In many cases, Winikur observed, “the (students') mental health issues are being neglected altogether.”

And the support that struggling students need is not always available at home, either. Although Brooks spoke of parents' love for their children, she also noted that parents do not always know what to do when their children are acting out in inappropriate ways.

“Most parents are glad to get a phone call from me. I try to call to say good things as well as not so good things,” she stated. “It's not us against them,” she added, noting that building individual relationships between teachers, students, and parents is key to student success.