It is about as appealing as a bucket of cold water in the face.
For many students, dropping out of school is a gradual and unintentional process. It is not so much a decision as something that just happens. A student might start staying away from school - a day here and two or three or four days there -- because he just doesn't feel like going. Then, before he knows it, he's missed so many days and so much work that he figures he'll fail the year anyway. Why not just pack it in? Students who drop out are not usually thinking about how this will affect their job prospects and their future lives. Their attention is on the here and now.
Teachers and principals see this process taking place all the time and try hard to figure out how they can arrest it. Recently, Denver principal Joe Sandoval came up with a kind of shock therapy for would-be dropouts. Sandoval requires these kids to sign a certificate that forces them to look at what not having a high school diploma will mean.
According to a story by Associated Press reporter Steven Paulson (November 5, 1996), the idea came to Sandoval when he got some bad news this fall. Nearly one-third of the 1,800 students at his school, North High, had quit last year -- and this was the highest dropout rate in the city. Sandoval had been struggling with the problem for some time. Several years ago, he set up an after-school program, the Welcome Center, where kids who were having trouble with their schoolwork could go for help, but that obviously was not enough.
Sandoval's new idea, a certificate of dropping out, attacks the problem in a different way. Before quitting, a student must go, with his parents, to sign the certificate in Sandoval's office. It is an official-looking document that spells out the implications of what the student is about to do, and it is about as appealing as a bucket of cold water in the face:
The undersigned student and guardian accept full responsibility for the listed student being a high school dropout. By signing this disclaimer, I show that I realize I will not have the necessary skills to survive in the 21st century.
The "anti-diploma" goes on, Paulson says, to list the skills and qualities that students can gain if they stay in school -- "reading, writing, arithmetic, problem-solving, responsibility, leadership." It also puts the implications of quitting school in financial terms: Dropouts can expect to earn an average of $585 a month, half of what they would earn if they had a high school diploma.
If, after reading the certificate of failure, a student decided that he doesn't really want to quit, he signs another form promising to stay in school. Then, Sandoval, the student, and the parents sit down and plan how to make the resolve stick, whether this involves tutoring or a change in teachers or an alternative placement.
The anti-diploma is unlikely to end dropping out in Sandoval's school, but it will certainly help those who find themselves in a mess and need a push back on to the path to graduation. It is important that the anti-diploma recognizes there is no point in keeping kids in school in order to do seat time or hang out with their friends. Staying in school has to go along with a commitment to work and improve. It is also important that the certificate forces Sandoval's students to look at the real nature of the choice they are making. The student who quits school needs to know that he will start his adult life with a handicap that he is unlikely to overcome.
Students in the successful school systems of other industrialized countries don't have to depend on a principal' s ingenuity to get this message. The systems themselves make clear to students -- and their parents -- the consequences of failing to attain the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in an adult life. And there are real consequences for high achievement as well as for failing to achieve. Students know that the grades they get and exams they take before they enter high school determine the kind of program they will follow. And they know that grades and school-leaving exams determine whether they will be admitted to university or a technical college or get a good entry-level position or an apprenticeship.
Joe Sandoval's certificate recognizes the need to connect school with life. It is relatively easy to make this connection for students who are at risk of dropping out. If we want to show students that success in school also counts, there will have to be some big changes in our system, and schools cannot make them alone. Students need to know that employers look at high school transcripts when they hire and that colleges have entry standards that demand high-school level achievement from high school graduates. The connection between what they do in school and the rest of their lives must be explicit for all our students.