Education Malpractice: A Year in a Dropout Factory by Nelson Reidar illuminates many harsh realities from the hallways of schools with high dropout rates, calling attention to the problem at hand and illuminating the need for serious change. The author recounts thinking that these schools could not be as bad as they are shown to be in the movies; however, after spending a year as an instructional coach in one, he found out that it was far worse than any of us could even imagine.

The school at which he worked had a reported graduation rate of 76 percent, yet the real figure is closer to 33 percent, as reported graduation rates are calculated by comparing the number of enrolled seniors with the number of graduates, rather than the number of students who began high school as a freshman and continued through high school until they graduated. This number is even more staggering when one takes into account the number of students who did not continue after 8th grade, but cannot be counted as there is no uniform nationwide student information system by which to track this data.

It is not just the true statistics that throw the harsh light of reality onto these schools. The author offers anecdotes of other tough realities: mothers who encourage their teen daughters to get pregnant as a means of generating extra public assistance for the family, gang conflicts, and students who had not earned any credits whatsoever by the end of the first semester of their sophomore years. The author witnessed the realities of dropout factories first hand and was compelled to open the eyes of the nation to the gross education malpractice that exists. Education Malpractice is a truly socially relevant and timely read that is certain to stimulate a cry for change within our educational system.

Contact: Nelson Reidar - educationmalpractice@gmail.com