Student Dropout Rates

On Average over 30% of students taking post-secondary education will drop out in their first year, this is over 300,000 students dropping out in Canada alone each year. One could name many reasons why dropout rates are so high in a student’s first year. However a very large reason students are not succeeding is because their educational foundations built in their first 13 years of school cannot support future academic success. Educational institutes at a secondary level and below have a very important role in the success of students who plan on attending a university or college; therefore schools must be held more accountable and must become more standardized in order to promote current and future success. There are major discrepancies …show more content…
It is important for each child to use their time wisely as to not fall behind, keeping up with work is a lot less difficult then catching up is. While spending time in school is important and should increase with age, quantity and quality also should be considered. The OECD (2016) states that time in school isn’t the most important aspect and that other areas like “how the available time is spent and on which field of education, how motivated students are to achieve, how strong the curriculum is and how good the teachers are.” (p.4) This is true and should be the focus of all schools instead of long hours filled with lack luster lessons and instead have a moderate amount of class time with exciting lessons and hands on activities to increase learning and enthusiasm. Another form of important school work is the work done outside of school. Robert J. Marazano (2016) says that “research provides strong evidence that, when used appropriately, homework benefits student achievement. (p.3) The key word is “appropriately” in this sentence because there is a fine balance between too much homework and too little. The homework given must also not be too hard. Teachers cannot ask parents to become a second teacher for their children. Homework should be constructive and useful not just for the sake of giving students more work. Giving homework can allow more time in class for instruction rather than countless questions that are strictly done by the child on their own. Thus homework is useful in moderation but should not be overwhelming because children spend much of their time doing other physical and intellectual activities that should not be over shadowed by a stack of work sheets and assignments. When kids struggle in school they are often pushed on to the next grade regardless that they’re grades do not meet the critical outcomes. This is what causes weakened