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http://schools.nyc.gov/Offices/mediarelations/NewsandSpeeches/2008-2009/20090622_grad_rates.htm

This article talks about the increase of high school graduation rates. In the article they act excited that the rate is 60% (the highest in four years). 60% graduation says alot about the modivation of students. Just over half of the public school population past, this also in includes students who just barely past. so the actually percentage of students who were modivated to do well is a smaller number.

http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-925/rate.htm
This website states a study that examined the drop out rate between normal school and a school that was based more toward a future career. The article states that the more focused the curriculum is, the less kids will drop out. The reason for this they state is because students have an idea of why they are learning something. Education can be explained like this: Imagen someone is making you jump up and down 100 times in one minute. If you only jump up and down 64 times, will you really care that much. It all depends if you know why you are jumping. If jumping less then 65 times results in the death of a kitten then yes. But if you arent really sure why you are jumping, and you dont want to be jumping, chances are you wont care.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/05/05/dropout.rate.study/index.html
This article was pretty basic except for the part where a girl talks about why she dropped out. She talks about how she lost interest after two of her friends were killed in a gang shooting. This brings up the idea of school in the big picture. Mabye kids arent motivated in school because they dont see it as that important compared to things in their life, such as staying alive.


http://diplomaguide.com/articles/GED_Statistics.html
In this source the article tells us basic facts about the GED. One interesting not about the GED is that the average age to get one is 24. That means that sometime after high school kids are remotivated and take extra steps to get where they want. Another Interesting fact is that one of the main reasons listed for getting a GED is "lack of interest in high school". I found this interesting because it shows that kids can get the end result of high school with out going through the process.


Unmotivated high school students need to personally see the connection between school and a sucsseful career and must gain the confidence to think they can do well.

This is an important topic because it has to deal with a major problem in schools, motivation. It is obvoiuse why the more kids that graduate the better it is for the society. Which would you want, 100 kids being doctors or 100 kids washing cars. I am not saying that high school is the only way to a good job, but it helps. By analyzing why kids arent motivated you can come up with a solution.