Inner City or At Risk Youth By: S. Jeannie Thompson

Inner City or At Risk Youth Students are the Heart of every School Schools are needed to meet the needs of the students. What do schools do for the kids that seem to not want to be there?

Inner City or At Risk Youth What are the key elements to getting youth to stay in school? Is community involvement important? Do teachers need to be an element that encourages students to stay in school?

Inner City or At Risk Youth Teenage pregnancy, gangs, and family issues are all integral parts of what keep the student out of school and on the street or working full time jobs before graduation.

Inner City or At Risk Youth What can be done to replace the street life intrigue? Why are youth disillusioned or encouraged by the “thug” life? How can students finish their high school diploma without falling into the cracks of society?

Drop Out Issues with Inner City Youth The enrolment of Inner city you in schools is staggering low amongst most communities all across North America. Studies have documented that inner-city youth experience high levels of life stress, poverty, and exposure to violence (Lever et al., 2004, pg.514).

Drop Out Issues with Inner City Youth Many students don’t make it through the first year of high school let alone through the entire four years to graduation. The economic impact of the school dropout is reflected in both short-and-long term loss of career options and earning potential (Lever et al., 2004, pg.514).

Drop Out Issues with Inner City Youth A positive and welcoming school climate can help with the prevention of school dropouts. This is thought to help students feel more at home with the school and to feel more willing to ask questions or to discuss their future fears with teachers and counselors within the school environment (Lever et al., 2004, pg.515).

Are Teachers Prepared to help At Risk Youth? “High Needs” schools are defined as those that have at least 20% of their students families living below the poverty line (Nelson, 2004, pg.475). Many schools with at risk or high needs students have a hard time keeping qualified teachers.

Are Teachers Prepared to help At Risk Youth? Young ambitious teachers that are just out of teaching college are eager and ready to take on the inner city schools, however, many feel that they were unprepared within their colleges to teach students of this at risk background (Nelson, 2004).

Are Teachers Prepared to help At Risk Youth? Teachers unfortunately have a tendency to last 1 to 5 years when teaching in an inner city, at risk, high needs school (Nelson, 2004). Schools are on the “Front Lines” in terms of management of violence and other public health crises (Albus et al., 2004, pg.549).

Questions Do you as future educators feel prepared to teach in high needs, at risk, and inner city schools? Do you believe that you will be prepared by the end of the education program? If so, how? If not, what can be done to change that?