PLN #4

For my fourth PLN I decided to read an article called "Absentee Students Get a Surprise Visit" by Annette Espinoza basically telling how North High School parents, teachers, and staff have started doing "Neighborhood walk campaigns" where they go into a certain neighborhood and go door-to-door encouraging drop outs to return to school. Since performing the campaigns the overall absence rate has increased by twenty-one percent. This campaign was the second one held this month as the North High principal has realized the urgency to get these kids back in school. "We want these kids to know that North cares" said Marvis Cain, one of the school's counselors. North High has recently started a program called Credit Recovery where students can stay after school to make up or finish assignments.

What Matters: I think what matters from this article is that not just kids at North High are dropping out and quitting school but all over the country kids are dropping out. The government needs a take extreme action and get these kids back into school as soon as possible. There should be a new and improved requiring kids to complete high school. Twenty to thirty years ago it was rare for kids to go to collage so high school wasn't really thought of as normal to complete either but now almost all kids go to collage so I think that all kids should at least complete high school.

How This Affects Me: I think this continues drop out rate is affecting me as well as the rest of the kids in America. The less number of kids that go to high school, the less number of kids go to collage. If less kids in America are getting a collage education then it will be easier for those that do to get into a good collage but it is also causing many companies to move over seas leaving less jobs for those that do make it through collage. So it is sort of like an on going circle causing more and more companies to move their work over seas leaving less jobs for us. So in order to stop this never ending circle kids need to acquire more support to stay in school or they need to be forced to stay in school.