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State, local dropout rates improve

Staff and wire reports | Tuesday, May 12 2009 06:21 PM

Last Updated Tuesday, May 12 2009 06:21 PM

California and Kern High School District public high schools showed slight improvements in their dropout and graduation rates in the 2007-08 school year, according to new figures released Tuesday by the state Department of Education.

The report found that the statewide dropout rate was 20.1 percent, down from 21.1 percent in 2006-07. About 68.1 percent of high school students graduated in 2007-08, up from 67.7 percent the previous year.

KHSD's dropout rate last year was 21.1 percent, or 1,969 students. The rate was 21.9 percent in 2006-07.

And the district's graduation rate last year was 77.4 percent.

There is no magic formula for keeping kids in school to graduate, other than dedicating time and resources, said Chris Persons, who chairs KHSD's school attendance review board, a program that works to get truant kids back in school.

If a student quit school, "we met with them multiple times," Persons said.

But severe economic uncertainty means there are also "midnight move scenarios," where whole families pack up and move overnight, which also figure into dropout rates, Persons said.

"The dropout rate in California is still unacceptably high, and it must be addressed in a comprehensive manner," said state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell.

"We can't wait until a student drops out to determine there's a problem."

The state dropout rates for all ethnic groups fell roughly 1 percent, but O'Connell said he was particularly concerned about the "alarmingly high dropout rates among African American and Hispanic students."

The report showed a dropout rate of 8.4 percent for Asians, 12.2 percent for whites, 25.5 percent for Hispanics and 34.7 percent for blacks.

In the Kern High School District, the dropout rates in 2007-08 were 14.7 percent for Asians, 16 percent for whites, 23.9 percent for Hispanics, and 26 percent for blacks.

In California, about 11.8 percent of students were not counted as dropouts nor graduates.

They include students who re-enrolled as fifth-year seniors, earned GEDs, enrolled in non-diploma programs, moved out of state or died.

The numbers in Tuesday's report are expected to change slightly after school districts review and correct the data over the next two months.

The annual report is the second based on a new state tracking system that issues each student an identifier number and enables officials to monitor each student as he or she progresses through school, allowing for more accurate accounting of graduation and dropout rates.

State education officials expect to have more accurate figures in 2011 after the state has had the opportunity to track individual students for four years.

Alan Bonsteel, president of California Parents for Educational Choice, said the new system still doesn't accurately reflect California's dropout rate because it fails to count middle-school dropouts and other students who leave the system.

The Department of Education will include dropout rates for middle school students next year, state officials said.

Experts say lowering California's dropout rate could help reduce crime, unemployment, incarceration and health care costs, while boosting the state's economy.

"It has huge social and financial costs to the state," said Russell Rumberger, an education professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who directs the California Dropout Research Project. "Our economy could be threatened by not having a sufficiently educated work force."

-- Terence Chea of the Associated Press and Jeff Nachtigal of The Californian contributed to this report.