what i learned

Over a million of the students who enter ninth grade each fall fail to graduate with their peers four years later. In fact, about seven thousand students drop out every school day. Perhaps this statistic was acceptable fifty years ago, but the era in which a high school dropout could earn a living wage has ended in the United States. Dropouts significantly diminish their chances to secure a good job and a promising future. Moreover, not only do the individuals themselves suffer, but each class of dropouts is responsible for substantial financial and social costs to the communities, states, and country in which they live.
Although graduation rates are a fundamental indicator of how schools are ultimately performing, only recently have those rates been rigorously scrutinized and the extent of the crisis in America‘s high school been revealed. For decades, schools and districts published misleading or inaccurate graduation rates, and as a result, the American public knew little of the scope and gravity of the problems faced by far too many of the nation‘s high schools. Reputable, independent research has exposed alarmingly low graduation rates that were previously hidden behind inaccurate calculations and inadequate data. There is a high school dropout crisis far beyond the imagination of most Americans, concentrated in urban schools and relegating many thousands of minority children to a life of failure. We urgently need to address this problem as a nation. Our goal in this book is to make the public aware of this issue and make improving high school graduation rates a central part of national education reform. We believe the first step must entail highlighting the severe racial disparities in high school graduation rates that exist at the school and district levels."--Gary OrfieldOnly half of our nation's minority students graduate from high school along with their peers. For many groups-Latino, black, or Native American males-graduation rates are even lower. As states hasten to institute higher standards and high-stakes tests in the effort to raise student achievement, this situation is likely to worsen, particularly among minority students. Yet this educational and civil rights crisis remains largely hidden from public view.The dropout problem is far worse than statistics indicate. Many states and districts simply do not count those students who fail to receive diplomas as dropouts. Even the hardest-hit urban districts report dropout rates of only 5-10 percent.

HISTORY ON TEEN PREGNACY DROP OUT SCHOOL

WASHINGTON (AP) — Fewer teenagers are having babies or dropping out of high school since the start of the decade, but slightly more live in poverty with parents who don't work year round.
A report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation charity found that measures of health and income for children and teens are no longer improving as much as they did in the 1990s. Instead, children are "treading water," said foundation President Doug Nelson.
"We're not talking about a catastrophe or the bottom falling out of anything," Nelson said. But, he added, "We've still got to do some poverty-rate reduction. We've got to make improvements from those 2000 numbers."
The findings were released Tuesday as part of the annual Kids Count report on the health and well-being of children and teens. The report measures each state's progress on 10 statistics, including infant mortality, poverty rates, single-parent families and babies born with low birth weights.
States in the Northeast and upper Midwest scored the best. At the top: New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Minnesota and Iowa. Southern states did the worst: Mississippi, Louisiana, New Mexico, South Carolina and Tennessee.
Louisiana was ranked 49th, even before Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast last year.
"We're a really poor state," said Judy Watts, president and chief executive of Agenda for Children, an advocacy group in Louisiana. "Everything starts to unravel as poverty takes a grip on children and families."
Watts said conditions for children are even worse since the hurricane, even with help from the state and federal governments.
"There's certainly been help, but I do not believe it has been adequate," Watts said.
Nationally, there were improvements in eight of the 10 measurements in the 1990s, when the economy was booming, government-sponsored health care for children was expanded significantly and welfare reform helped move hundreds of thousands of families from welfare to work.
One issue that has continued to improve: teen pregnancies. Teenagers' birth rates fell from 48 per 100,000 females in 2000 to 42 per 100,000 in 2003.
"Every state fell, every racial group fell," said Bill O'Hare, a senior fellow at the Casey foundation. "Teen abortion rates and teen pregnancy rates are both down, so it's not a trade off. Fewer teenagers are having sex, and of those who are having sex, more are using contraception."
The Casey foundation uses the most recent statistics available from the Census Bureau and other government agencies for its report, now in its 17th year.
The U.S. improved in four areas from last year, declined in three and stayed the same in three. Most of the changes were small.
Among this year's findings:
• The percentage of high school dropouts decreased from 11% in 2000 to 8% in 2004.
• Both the child death rate (ages 1 to 14) and teen death rate (ages 15 to 19) fell slightly from 2000 to 2003.
• More than 13 million children, about 18%, lived in poverty in 2004, a slight increase from 17% in 2000.

• One third of America's children lived in homes where none of the parents had full-time, year-round jobs in 2004. That is a slight increase from 32% in 2000.
• The portion of babies born weighing fewer than 5.5 pounds increased by less than a percentage point, to 7.9%, from 2000 to 2003.
There was no change since the start of the decade in infant mortality, percent of children in single-parent families and percent of teens neither working nor attending school.

CREBIBLE

teen pergnancy statisics



about one -third of girls in the united states get pergnancy before age 20 in 2006 a total of 435,427 infants wewe born to mothrs aged 15-19 years in 2006 birth rates


in 200 birth rates increased for first time for girls aged 15-19 from 40.5 per 1,000 women in 2005 to 41.9


for girls age 18-19 the rate ofbirths is more than three times higher at 73 births per 1,000 women

NON - CREDIBLE

Purists claim it is down to policies promoting abstinence, which have been heavily backed by the Bush government.
But family planning services argue 88% of those who make the pledge break the pledge, so it must be down to condoms and safe sex education.
Given that the number of under-18s who became pregnant in England and Wales rose from 40,966 in 2001 to 41,868 in 2002, what can the UK learn from the US?
By 2010, pregnancy rates in under 18s in England will have to have dropped by 50% under targets set by the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy.
Conception rates in under 16s should also follow a downward trend, the government has said.







An analysis by researchers at the Alan Guttmacher Institute in the US found about a quarter of the decline in teenage pregnancy between 1988 and 1995 was due to more teenagers abstaining from sex.

The message of abstinence is universal and has a universal effect on reducing teenage pregnancies.
Matthew Staver from Liberty Counsel
How effective are abstinence pledges?
The remaining three-quarters of the drop resulted from a decrease in pregnancy rates among sexually active teenagers.
This decline was caused by more effective contraceptive use.
But Matthew Staver, from the conservative US Christian group Liberty Counsel, believes the more recent decline is down to teenagers waiting until they are married before they have sex.

WHY I CHOSE THIS PARTICULAR SUDJECT.

Why I chose this particular subject?



I chose this because teen pregnancy is an important issue. There are health risks for the baby and children born to teenage mothers are more likely to suffer health, social, and emotional problems. Women who become pregnant during their teens have an increased risk for complications, such as premature labor and socioeconomic consequences as well. Despite the fact that the teen birth rate is climbing after slowly falling for years, there are still an estimated one million teen pregnancies in the United States alone. About 85% of these pregnancies are unplanned, which in any population can increase the risk for problems. The biggest risk for teen mothers is delaying prenatal care or worse, 7.2% received no care at all.
The reason for lack of prenatal care is usually delayed pregnancy testing, denial or even fear of telling others about the pregnancy. Most states have a health department or University clinic where prenatal care is free or low cost and patient confidentiality is very important, meaning no one can tell the teen mother's family.
Because the body of a teen is still growing she will need more nutritional support to meet both her needs and that of her baby. Nutritional counseling can be a large portion of prenatal care, usually done by a doctor or a midwife, sometimes a nutritionist. This counseling will usually include information about prenatal vitamins, folic acid, and the dos and don'ts of eating and drinking. Lack of proper nutrition can lead to problems like anemia (low iron), low weight gain, etc.
Another problem facing teen mothers is the use of drugs and alcohol, including cigarette smoking. No amount of any of these substances is safe for use in pregnancy. In fact, their use can complicate pregnancy even further increasing the likelihood of premature birth and other complications.
Premature birth and low birth weight create a wealth of their own problems, including brain damage, physical disabilities and more. The potentially lengthy hospital stay and increased risk of health problems for these babies leads to more stress on the teen mother.

What I Know

over a million of the students who enter ninth grade each fall fail to graduate with their peers four years later. in fact, about seven thousand students drop out every school day. perhaps this statistic was acceptable fifty years ago, but the era in which as school dropout could earn a living wage has ended in the united states.dropouts significantly diminish their chances to secure a good job and a promising future.Moreover,Not only do the idividuals themselves stuffer.but each class of dropouts is responsible for substantial finacial and social costs to the communities,state and country and which they live. the dropout problem is far worse than statistics indicate. many states and districts simply do not count those students who fail to recieve diplomas as dropouts. even th e hardest- hit urban districts repot dropouts rates of only 5-10 percent. dropouts in america can make an enormous different in reducing the shamefully high level of school dropouts in communities across the country and make it dar more likely that young students will graduate from highschool and go on to the college. schools communtities parents and students alike can benefit from the promising models and concrete steps suggested here, and unlock the american dream for literally millions of the nations youth the news media and others often quote high school dropout rates as an indication of the success of failure of american schools.however the rates as an indication of the success of failure of american schools.however the rates the rates quotes may diifer signigicantly from time to time or from one publication to another.why is this? what is the true dropout rate? The answer is not as cleas as one might want there are different definitions of what it means to graduate from highschool and they are wide differences in who is counted as a dropout. in addition, there are a number of ways the student dropout rate can be calculated.