Staying in school increases a student's chances of getting a higher paying, more promising job. And yet, many students give up on their education as soon as high school. Why does this happen?

The Life of a High School Dropout

Getting a high school diploma has become somewhat essential to the future of every young person in the world, especially in the United States. Without a high school diploma, workers earn almost half of what other students earn when they graduate from high school, not to mention college or university.

According to estimates, a high school graduate earns approximately $9.617 more than a high school dropout every year. This amount adds up to $100.000 difference in a single decade!

In addition to this, high school dropouts also face much higher unemployment rates. Now that the education is advanced and more and more students opt for higher education, a high school dropout faces an unemployment rate of approximately 8 percent.

Therefore, such decisions lead not only to worse income in future, but to much bigger risks of unemployment.

Why Students Drop Out of High School

Unfortunately, the number of reasons why students drop out of high school are endless. Some students say they fail to finish their high school education because of their bad academic performance, while others go further and list boredom as the biggest cause for this decision. In the other hand, there are those who decide to drop out to become parents or get a job. And finally, you get those students who actually consider education to be irrelevant to their lives.

Of course, there are also the group of students that drop out because of the school environment and educational conditions. In the less developed countries, students decide to drop out to start working and list ineffective teachers and bad school environment as the main cause for this decision.

When it comes to high school education, this decision is made by the student himself. However, there are certainly things to look for if you want to avoid this from happening. The job of the teacher and the parent is to look for the following warning signs:

Continuous bad academic performance

Sexual promiscuity

Drug use

Worsening financial situation at home

Gang activity

How to Help a Student Graduate from High School

An individual cannot control all the factors that may contribute to a student dropping out of school, but both educators and parents can do some things to guide the student in the right direction.

Educators and parents should strive to assist students in learning, especially if they are failing too many classes. Such activities include tutoring after school, diagnosing learning disabilities, and focusing on the skills of the student.

Parents should strive to stay involved in the child's education. This means that they need to maintain interest in the child's grades, speak with the educators on regular basis, find common solutions, and make plans for the future education or life after graduation of the student.

Author Bio:

I'm a content writer at a professional paper editor service at MarvelousReviews, as well as a freelance teacher who offers online classes to students who want to learn the English language. As such, I have vast experience in crafting academic papers and knowledge of the educational system.