Dropouts and Portfolio May Be Linked

The portfolio wasn’t the main reason why I dropped out of school but it was one of them,” a recent South Kingstown High School dropout says.

  Prior to the portfolio’s introduction in 2007, SKHS graduated 298 students of a class of 320. Of the remaining 22 students who dropped out, 14 got their GEDs.

 After the portfolio’s introduction in 2008, the Class of 2007 had a dropout rate of six percent while the Class of 2008 had an increased rate of eight percent.

  In recent years, SKHS has introduced the portfolio program to students as part of the No Child Left Behind Act. This program is administered to students in the form of mandatory courses SK-101 through SK-104. Also students are required to complete their portfolio for graduation.

  The NCLB Act, introduced in the beginning of the Bush Administration, has increased state and local testing in attempts to keep students across the nation at the same pace.

  The NCLB Act’s representation in the Northeastern states of Vermont, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island is the New England Common Assessment Program. Known to many Rhode Island students and adults as the NECAPs, students begin this form of standardized testing as early as in elementary school.

   However, the incredible amount of funding and time that this act consumes has limited learning for many students. The tests take students out of the classroom and subject them to unneeded stress. The purpose of the portfolio is for seniors to be able to look back on their collection of work and see their improvement over their high school career.

  The portfolio is administered by multiple teachers at the high school. The course replaced study hall and is a quarter long class rotating with Health and Physical Education. At the end of the quarter students are required to have a certain type and number of their works in the portfolio in order to pass the class.       

  However, since the portfolio’s introduction many question the need for such a program. Many students and adults see the portfolio as a poor use of school funds and of student and faculty time and an unneeded stress. Others fear that this added task will increase the number of dropouts. Whether or not it has increased dropouts, it has decreased a love for school.

  With the increasing amount of state testing, illegal drugs and other factors, perhaps the portfolio could put some students over the edge.

  In recent years the South Kingstown High School like many other Rhode Island public schools have been subjected to an overwhelming amount of standardized testing. 

  “The most stressful time that you do the portfolio is your junior and senior year,” said senior Pat Franco. “And that’s when we have to take all of this state testing and NECAPS.”

  With all the stresses of  during the junior and senior year have high school is why these two grades see the highest level of dropouts in elementary and secondary schools.

  While dropout rates are known to vary between classes the fact of the matter is that the dropout rate has increased. The initial increase was not drastic but it could be a warning sign of things to come.