The National At-Risk Education Network

About NAREN

Become an associate of NAREN!

How to Start a NAREN State/Territorial Chapter
(Wisconsin and Texas have already established state chapters!)

On this page:

• The NAREN Mandate
• The Director's Newsletter
• Our Advisory Team
• Defining "At-Risk"

The NAREN Mandate

The National At-Risk Education Network's mission is to establish a highly effective national organization for promoting the success of at-risk youth in our schools.

The National At-Risk Education Network exists to facilitate the dissemination of information, support, and networking opportunities for educators dedicated to increasing the success and well-being of at-risk youth.

The Director's Newsletter

Edited by NAREN's director, Anthony Dallmann-Jones, NAREN periodically publishes an e-mail newsletter to update subscribers on news and current activities. See...

• NAREN News & Upcoming Events

Our Advisory Team

• Active Board Members
• Advisory Council Members

Defining "At-Risk"

There is serious debate over exactly what the term "at-risk" means. Some deny there is need for such a term. Some do not like the term or prefer another. The National At-Risk Education Network defines the term "at-risk" in two ways:

• At-risk of dropping out of school; and/or,
• At-risk of not succeeding in life due to being raised in unfavorable circumstances.

We at the National At-Risk Education Network are quite sensitive to the prejudice against at-risk learners. Society, and even the school itself as its representative, is sometimes condescending and even neglectful of children, none of whom asked to be placed at risk. NAREN's definition of at-risk stresses the "mismatch" between children's needs and what the school has to offer, bringing the school itself into the definition of at-risk in an attempt to allow it to take ownership of the problem and, therefore, possess more power to do something positive for children who desperately need the system to be their champion.

I. Dropping-out

According to figures from the Children's Defense Fund, one out of every eight school children will not graduate.¹ According to the United States Census school enrollment projections, there were 53,445,000 children in school in the year 2000.²

If one is defining "at-risk" as "at-risk of dropping out of school," this means we currently may be harboring as many as 6,680,625 children in our schools who are technically, legally, educationally at-risk.

Why is dropping out so bad?

First, let's talk about mean annual earning by age and the highest level of school completed. These figures are based on only those year-round, full-time workers 18 and over who were in the civilian labor force, worked and had earnings in 2000.

Well, if you believe that money is about empowerment in one's life to have better health and prosperity, including all the emotional aspects from security to self-actualizing, then the picture is pretty stark for not staying in school.

There is also quite an incentive here for advancing one's education. To make it more plain:

• Some high school is worth $1,000 additional income per year
• A high school diploma is worth $10,000 more a year
• Some college is worth another $7,100 a year
• A college degree is worth a whopping $24,000 more a year
• A Master's Degree is worth an additional $13,000
• And a terminal graduate or professional degree is worth another $24,000 per year

[NOTE: This means the difference between income for a drop-out and a graduate degree is almost $78,000 per year for every income earning year-right around $3,500,000.00 on the average per lifetime.]

Multiply any of the above amounts by the average number of working years in any person's life -- and is this a big enough reason to do whatever it takes to keep kids in school? Think about the children they will raise when they have a family and what kind of influence that differential will make in their readiness, health, and socialization skills!

We are not finished -- there are bigger implications in these figures yet. The figures you have been viewing were for men only. Let us do the same figures for women.

Again, these figures are based on only those year-round, full-time (female) workers 18 and over who were in the civilian labor force, who worked and had earnings in 2000.

Now let us place the two charts side by side:

Remember, this is the annual average income and must be taken times every year of one's adult life to get the full impact! The disparity is so large that is makes for a depressing message.

Start looking at your female students differently... what do they need from you in order to truly take their stand as an economic equal in tomorrow's world?

Implications

Explaining the gender disparity in salaries per grade level achieved could spawn much speculation and discussion but, regardless of conclusions drawn, one can draw a clear implication from the following statistic: each and every year in the United States approximately 845,340 babies are born to unmarried mothers who did not complete high school.¹ The predictably limited resources that will be available to these mothers and their children speak volumes about being at-risk of many things.

II. At-Risk From A Bad Start

It is safe to assume that many of the children represented in the figures below are, indeed, at-risk of having decreased horizons of success whether they remain in school or drop-out.

Facts that we know:

• Over 3,000,000 children are reported for child abuse and neglect to CPS agencies in the U.S. each year. Approximately 1,000,000 children are verified as victims of child maltreatment, or about 16 out of every 1000.^4, 5   One can only estimate how many go unreported or are true but are unsubstantiated -- but there is no doubt the actual numbers are much higher.
• 13,500,000 children live in poverty -- or one in five (18.9%).¹
• An estimated 200,000 children in this country have an imprisoned mother and more than 1.6 million have an imprisoned father. With the nation's incarcerated population growing by an average of 6.5% each year,⁶ the number of children with parents in prison will likely continue to increase. Parental incarceration -- and the crimes and arrests that precede it -- causes chaos in the lives of these children, including traumatic separations and erratic shifts from one caregiver to another. Most children with incarcerated parents live in poverty before, during, and after their parents' incarceration.⁷
• In 1999, 26% of 12th graders, 22% of 10th graders, and 12% of 8th graders, had used illicit drugs in the previous 30 days.⁸
• In 1999, 31% of 12th graders, 26% of 10th graders, and 15% of 8th grade students reported having five or more alcoholic beverages in a row in the previous 2-week period.⁸

All these children come to school carrying their burdens and issues with them!

Even with these significant personal issues filling the hearts and heads of students, local, state and federal educational stakeholders expect our schools to reach and teach all children with a standardized curriculum, achieve state standards, and do well on state-mandated achievement tests or else!

References

1. The State of America's Children Yearbook 2000. Washington, DC: Children's Defense Fund, 2000.
2. United States Government 1999 Census Report. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1999.
3. Dallmann-Jones, A.S. Dropping Out is Big Bucks. At-Risk Mindful Educator #7.
4. National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse. 1994.
5. United States Department of Human Services. Child Maltreatment 1998: Reports From the States to the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1998.
6. Gilliard, D. K., & Beck, A.J. Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin: Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear 1997. Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1998.
7. Johnston, D. The Care and Placement of Prisoners' Children. In K. Gabel & D. Johnston (Eds.): Children of Incarcerated Parents. New York: Lexington Books, 1995a (pp. 103-123).
8. America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being. Forum on Child & Family Statistics. U.S. Government: www.childstats.gov), 2000.