Title: Dropouts Start Early
Producer: Robert Seith
Feed: CWKN #380, April 9, 2008
Time: 1:37
SUGGESTED LEAD:  BEFORE THIS SCHOOL YEAR ENDS, ONE MILLION KIDS WILL HAVE GIVEN UP… AND DROPPED OUT OF HIGH SCHOOL. CONVENTIONAL WISDOM HAS IT THAT DROPPING OUT IS AN ANGRY AND IMPULSIVE DECISION FOR MANY KIDS.  BUT A NEW STUDY SUGGESTS THERE IS A WAY TO PREDICT WHO WILL DROP OUT ... JUST VISIT YOUR LOCAL KINDERGARTEN.
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NARR: LAST YEAR, 7-YEAR-OLD DERRICK WAS BEGINNING TO HATE BOOKS. (:03)

SOT: Marna Collins – Mother (:05)
“And when he did read to me, he’d get frustrated. And he didn’t want to read.”

NARR:  HOW DID HE FEEL? IN A WORD … (:02)

SOT: Derrick, age 7 (:14)
“Sad.”

NARR:  ALREADY, AT THIS EARLY AGE, IT’S A RACE AGAINST TIME … (:03)

SOT: Jill Isbell Rhodes, Reading Recovery, Long Beach Unified School District (:19)
“Every day that they fall behind, their peers are moving ahead and so it’s like chasing a moving target.”

NARR:  AND MANY KIDS NEVER CATCH UP. A STUDY IN THE JOURNAL ‘EDUCATION RESEARCH’ REPORTS THAT YOU CAN PREDICT WITH ACCURACY WHO WILL DROP OUT IN HIGH SCHOOL BY LOOKING AT HOW WELL KIDS PERFORM IN KINDERGARTEN. (:12)

SOT: Danny Darby, Education Specialist (:40)

“If you start school with a negative experience, that’s an experience that’s going to last for the rest of their educational career.”

NARR: THE RESEARCH SUGGESTS THAT DROPPING OUT IS NOT AN IMPULSIVE DECISION … BUT AN OUTCOME SET IN MOTION YEARS EARLIER. (:07)

SOT: Nathaniel Donson, M.D., Child Psychiatrist (:55)
“As these problems go on and on, and as they are overlooked, children’s personality organization, their character formation begins to be settled.  The longer you wait, the harder it gets to make change, and the costs are much, much higher.”

NARR: EXPERTS SAY EARLY INTERVENTION IS CRUCIAL. (:02)

SOT: Robert J. Aloia, Superintendent, Bergen Country Technical Schools (1:17)
“If you identify it and address it now at the preschool level, it does not exist then at the middle school or at the high school level. It won’t exist anymore.

NARR: DERRICK IS NOW IN A SPECIAL READING PROGRAM.  HE SAYS HE DIDN’T USED TO FEEL LIKE A READER (:05)

SOT:  Derrick (1:33)
“But now I do.”

NARR: I’M COLLIN SIEDOR FOR CONECT WITH KIDS. (:02)

SUGGESTED TAG:   FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THIS AND OTHER STORIES, LOG ONTO <LOCAL URL> AND CLICK ON THE CONNECT WITH KIDS ICON.