Education Week reported last month on a recent Gallup poll that found that student engagement begins dropping between fifth and sixth grade, and by high school, only a third report feeling positive about school. How does the school bus factor into all this?
First, the Gallup Student Poll was conducted last fall and sampled more than 900,000 students in grades 5 through 12. It asked dozens of questions about the level of the students’ success in the classroom and categorized answers into the areas of engagement, hope, entrepreneurial skills and financial literacy. The findings, Gallup concluded, reveal that a decline in student engagement correlates to feeling less cared for by adults, resulting in the students seeing less value in their own work.
The statistics raise intriguiging chicken-or-the-egg questions. Certainly student disengagement from school is nothing new and at least partly attributed to the rite of passage for many teenagers, but is something else at the root? Is student disengagement a result of something educators are not doing as opposed to something they are?
A big part of growing pains for teens is the realization that the world doesn’t actually revolve around them and that, ultimately, others have more pressing, day-to-day concerns to worry about. Yet, proving the true dichotomy of puberty, teenagers at the same time often avoid, reject even, any form of parental or adult interest shown to them. Ever try to ask your teenager how their day was, after all?
Ancedotally, the school bus industry also sees a general decline in school bus ridership that seems to mirror the common ageframe of student disengagement, starting around junior high and certainly in full effect by high school. This in part prompts many school districts across the country to cut or altogether eliminate transportation service for older students, as this segment prefers to walk or ride their bikes, grab rides with other students, drive themselves or rely on public transit.
There are many reasons for this, of course. Certainly budget cuts are to blame, but the school bus also loses some of its yellow luster in term of the “cool” factor, as many teenagers view the school bus as a vehicle for the “little kids.” Then there is the rise in after-school activities, sports and jobs that make their schedules not conducive with school bus routes headed home. But perhaps, and many parents might agree with me, it’s that many teenagers (and pre-teens) simply yearn to move on to the next stage, albeit too quickly, and they want to leave everything else behind, including the school bus and their elementary and secondary educational experiences for the life of a grown-up, where they can call the shots.
It takes a special kind of adult — parent, educator, school bus driver or otherwise — to get through to many teenagers. Not to say it’s impossible, but I read the poll as an indication that adults could learn to adapt their skills to become more of true mentors and advocates rather than simply that of a parent-figure or disciplinarian. The older some students get, the more apt they are to see us “old” people as out of touch, especially when we seem to only correct them. So let’s get in touch, especially in terms of providing direction to teenagers, coaching them and addressing their options in terms of transportation and safety, and providing them vital networking and independence tools for the future.
Yes, the school bus is the safest mode of transportation available to take students to and from school. But we as an industry must also be realistic. The school bus isn’t always available to students, especially in this day and age of budget cuts. Plus, there will always be a certain segment of the constituency who responds to school bus rides with a, “No thanks.” So, instead, what can student transporters do — and, indeed, what are they already doing — to assist students with providing options, whatever those may be? Has your transportation department discussed how it could influence the greater conversation in your community about offering teenage students opportunities to be a part of their own transportation decisions? What about job training, especially with the current driver shortage? How can student transporters use the power of social networking sites?
Some areas still allow teenagers upon reaching the age of 18 to drive a school bus, which is how many of today’s transportation leaders got their start. Where driving a school bus is not an option for teenagers, are there internships that your department could provide, such as teaching logistics and routing? Are there apprentice opportunities in the garage? Student engagement requires out-of-the-box thinking, whether that is taking place in the classroom, outside of it … and definitely on the school bus. The crystal ball tells me this is could very well be an increasingly important concept for student transportation, especially with the implementation of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, which we report on this month. While ESSA says nothing specifically about a tie-in with student transportation, one of the major tenets of the reauthorized education law is improved high school graduation rates, which circles back to the student engagement conversation, not to mention the ability for students — especially in rural areas — to gain access to the classroom in the first place.
In short, and borrowing from marketing-speak, engage your audience and invite them to be a part of the solution for not only their issues but your own.
