Why Kids Drop Out

In this report, KYW's Mike DeNardo talks with two teenagers who dropped out of Philadelphia schools.

by KYW's Mike DeNardo

What makes a student drop out?

"Nothing motivated me to stay in school."

Seventeen-year-old Christian DeJesus says he just felt no connection to his teachers at Edison High:

"No teachers were actually asking me questions or telling me, do I need help? Or giving me the necessities that I need to get my high school diploma."

So, he stopped going:

"I didn't see nothing school was really important for. But my daily routine was really boring. I was just laying down, sitting down, basically doing nothing with my life."

Eighteen-year-old Ashley Howell also felt invisible at Edison:

"The teachers only dealt with the defiant kids, so it was like, you never really got full attention toward you. So I wasn't getting challenged enough. So I dropped out. And it was, like, easy to drop out. Nobody called or nothin'."

Complicating matters, Ashley was pregnant:

"I waited until after I had my baby to go back to school. So after I had her I went back, and it just didn't work."

But Ashley says that after a while she knew her daughter would want to be proud of her mom. And Christian says his late mother would have wanted him to get his diploma. 
 
Both are now enrolled at one of Philadelphia's accelerated high schools, on track to graduate in January.

(File photo by KYW's Ed Fischer)