Education reform has been on the agenda for several decades. In 1970, American schools had the highest rate of graduation around the world. However, it did not remain the same for a long time, and today high schools across the US show the lowest graduation level. About 25 percent of high school students cannot make their way to the graduation. The problem of dropouts drags poverty and crime alongside. The costs to fix these issues are quite sufficient, consequently, the overall dropout rate concerns higher officials as well as average American parents.
The mass high school dropouts started yet in 1980 across the US. In 1983, the Reagan administration issued the report which concentrated upon the disastrous rate of the dropouts and the urgent need of reforms. For all these years, the government implemented numerous educational programs which appeared expensive and ineffective. In the last decade, officials took greater efforts, including No Child Left Behind policy, but a more groundbreaking reformation is still to be done.
Standardized approach is currently blamed for most failures in the field of education. Schools estimate academic success by tests and require that students fit into tight schedules. On the one hand, these demands are quite normal for energetic students who are willing to learn something new, but the majority of teenagers are not so eager. About a half of the students struggle with the curriculum as they cannot catch the whole material. They do not prepare at home as they are supposed to, consequently, they fail testing. Besides, there are kids of the low-income families who cannot perform because of the improper nutrition and children with special needs. All these group need more individual approach which currently cannot be provided by public schools.