What we're finding with our benchmarking study is that typically at the end of high school, only about 40% to 50% of students have completed their biology courses. About 20% to 30% have completed their chemistry, and 10% to 20% have completed their physics courses. The polls we've done suggest that they drop out for a few reasons, one of which is that they don't need any more credits to graduate from high school. About half of them who don't continue on say they don't need to. It's not required, and they're not seeing the connection with future jobs, so why work harder than they need to if they don't need it?
In our poll, 15% said they'd already learned enough in their science courses to help them with their everyday life forever, so they're not seeing the relevance of science.
I believe very strongly it's the relevance and the lack of clarity as to what awaits them. Many young people have no idea that about 40% of college programs require or recommend optional science and math credits. One of the fastest-growing areas in the college system is foundational or remedial science and math programming.
So they're dropping it because they don't know. Their parents don't realize how important it is and how many doors get cut off.