Number of youths living on the margins is growing

I in seven youths nationwide is neither at school nor at work, a percent that has grown dramatically since the economic recession, co-ordinate to a study released Th. Nationwide, v.eight million immature people, historic period 16 to 24, are living on the margins without fifty-fifty role-time jobs – an increment of 800,000 between 2007 and 2010.

The report ranks the 25 largest metropolitan areas, including five in California, based on the percentage of disconnected youth – defined as not working or attending school. One in Seven: Ranking Youth Disconnection in the 25 Largest Metro Areas was done by Measure of America, a project of the nonpartisan Social Science Enquiry Quango.

Young African Americans are twice equally likely equally whites and nigh three times as likely as Asian Americans to neither attend school nor have a job. (Click to enlarge.)

Low-income, African American, and Latino youth are the virtually probable to exist disconnected, including more than ane in five African American youth. The statistics are fifty-fifty more alarming for African American young men: 26 percent are neither in school nor working, compared with nineteen per centum of teenage girls and young women. However, in the Latino customs, more than young women (20.3 percent) – many young mothers – than immature men (xvi.8 percent) are disconnected.

Out of the 25 metro areas, Boston had the lowest share (9 percent) of asunder youth, and Phoenix the most (18.8 percent). In California, the Riverside-San Bernardino area had the quaternary highest percentage nationally – 16.9 percent. In Riverside-San Bernardino, that includes about one in v African American and Latino youth, and one in seven white young adults. The other California metro areas studied were Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento, and San Francisco, which includes the East Bay Area.

"Of the v cities in California, one-half a million young people are unattached from these anchor institutions that give y'all your identity and purpose as well as coin, educational activity, and job skills," said Sarah Burd-Sharps, co-author of the study.

The unemployment charge per unit for immature people without a high schoolhouse degree is 3 times higher than those with a college degree. (Click to enlarge.)

The report criticizes the loss of support since the 1970s of alternative pathways to jobs for those who practice not desire a four-twelvemonth college caste. At that place are two parts to this problem, Burd-Sharps said: first, bringing back a vocational education system, and second, making sure the programs aren't stigmatized.

"They are always seen as the bottom pick," she said. "The idea that annihilation other than a college degree is second-all-time is really damaging to kids whose aspirations and interests are not best served by a iv-year higher degree." In that location are many jobs that will not get offshore and tin can provide stable income, she said, such as respiratory therapists and dental hygienists, which require an acquaintance's degree, or hair stylists, computer support specialists, and paramedics, which crave training just no degree.

A third of the disconnected youth had dropped out of high schoolhouse, close to one-half (46 percent) had only a loftier school diploma, more than a 3rd (35 per centum) were young mothers, and about ane in 8 (13 percent) had a inability. Low-income and minority youth lack the support systems necessary to navigate adolescence and young machismo, Burd-Sharps emphasized.

The asunder youth, the report discovered, were typically found in communities where the adults were suffering from high unemployment and low education achievement. And within metropolitan areas, the difference between one city and another was often quite stark. For instance, in the San Francisco metro area, Berkeley has merely 3.3 percent disconnected youth compared with 25 percent in depression-income Oakland-Elmhurst. Similarly, in affluent West Los Angeles, merely 3.5 percent of youth were disconnected compared with 25.1 percent in Watts.

Burd-Sharps said schools serving such low-income communities need to provide a strong curriculum and guidance counselors to aid advise students of their multiple options. California regularly ranks last in the nation in the ratio of guidance counselors to students, and since the recession the state'south largest districts have laid off an additional 20 percentage, according to a recent EdSource written report.

"Non investing in solid guidance is a sure way to ensure they drib out," she said. "Except for San Diego, all the California metro areas had dropout rates well above the national average. It's going to price California dearly in the future."

San Diego ranked third of the 25 metro areas in terms of having the least disconnected youth, although yet virtually one in nine (xi.1 pct) young people was not in schoolhouse or did not have a job. San Diego also had the 4th-everyman high school dropout charge per unit of the metro areas studied. Again, the differences among neighborhoods were sharp, with nearly i in five (xviii.9 percent) in Regal Beach disconnected, compared with iii.6% in the affluent coastal communities of Torrey Pines and Mission Bay.

San Francisco ranked seventh overall, with a disconnection rate of 12.four percent. Los Angeles, Dallas, and Baltimore together ranked 11th, twelfth, and 13th, with 14.2 pct. Sacramento and Portland together ranked 14th and 15th, with a disconnection rate of 14.3 percent. Riverside-San Bernardino and Atlanta together ranked 21st and 22nd, with rates but under 17 per centum.

But economically troubled Spain and Italy among affluent democracies had a higher rate of young adults living on the margin, neither in school nor at work, than the United States. (Click to enlarge.)

The report looks to European countries that provide a strong high school teaching with opportunities for internships and apprenticeships in technical careers. The vocational system in Deutschland, for instance, attracts more than half of high school students in 350 occupational apprenticeships. A recent poll in Finland found that ninety percent of respondents said they felt very positive about vocational education, frequently chosen career-tech in California.

In European countries, the private sector plays a pivotal role, offering apprenticeships, paid internships, and after-school preparation, Burd-Sharps said. Students are learning "not merely technical skills, only the importance of showing up on fourth dimension, perseverance – all of the soft skills that kids are struggling with today."

The report did point to a plan in California – Linked Learning – that is attempting to encounter this need. An example of the Linked Learning approach is the California Partnership Academies – high schools or schools within a loftier school that focus on specific career paths and provide students with a curriculum, internship opportunities, and mentors that are connected to their area of interest, such equally wellness care or business organization. These programs partner with local industry.

Overall, Burd-Sharps said, the report points to the need to accost the disconnected communities where these youth live. "We demand to enable families to give them the things they need to go connected," she said. "We need to address the factors that drive poverty."

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Source: https://edsource.org/2012/number-of-youths-living-on-the-margins-is-growing/20089