Chicago schools make dropouts sign on the dotted line
CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago school system has a new requirement for would-be dropouts and their parents — they must sign a consent form warning of the possible pitfalls of quitting school, including jail and unemployment.
Arne Duncan, chief executive of the nation’s third-largest school district, said the form is a way of being “brutally honest” about the consequences of dropping out.
“This is also a way to teach decision-making skills,” Duncan said Friday. “In order for them to make good decisions throughout life, you have to give them the facts. We want our students, our parents, to understand the devastating impact that this decision will have on students’ lives.”
Duncan said he knew of no other U.S. school districts taking Chicago’s approach.
The letter, adopted this week, is a change from an often-criticized policy that allowed students to merely telephone their schools with the news they weren’t coming back.
Students 16 to 18 and their parents now must sign a waiver of their “educational rights” and acknowledge that among other things:
—”I will be less likely to find good jobs that pay well, bad jobs that don’t pay well, or maybe any jobs.”
—”I will not be able to afford many things that I will see others acquiring.”
—”I will be more likely to spend time in jail or prison.”
—”I will be more likely to rely on the state welfare system for my livelihood.”
—”I will be considerably less able to properly care for and educate my children.”
Thirty years ago in Chicago, dropping out did not have dire consequences, Duncan said, noting that a dropout could get a good-paying job at the stockyards or in a steel mill. He said there is no way to make a decent living without a high school diploma now.
Mary Ware, the parent of high school and elementary school students, was skeptical the form would have much effect.
“If they don’t have that get-up-and-go and not looking for something to better their lives, I don’t think it will matter,” she said. “My son loves school and his dream is to go to college and become an artist.”
Alfred Hess, a professor of education and social policy at Northwestern University, dismissed the form as ineffective. He said most teenagers do not formally drop out, they just stop going to school.
According to Chicago school officials, 13 percent of the district’s 435,000 students drop out annually. Nationally, five of every 100 young adults enrolled in high school in October 1999 left school before October 2000 without completing a high school program, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. The numbers are the latest available.