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| Local dropout rates well below state, county levels |
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| Written by Maddy Houk | Patterson Irrigator | |
| Friday, 25 July 2008 | |
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At a glance High school dropout rates over four years, released last week by the state Department of Education:
High schools throughout the state last week received more specific information than ever about their dropout rates. Generally speaking, the news wasn’t good. At Patterson High School, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. The report released by the state Department of Education showed Patterson High with an adjusted derived dropout rate of 14.3 percent. That’s an estimate of dropouts over a four-year period based on single-year data from 2006-07, with corrections made by local districts. Stanislaus County had a dropout rate of 23.6 percent, just slightly better than the state’s 24.2 percent. “A high school diploma is essential, so we need to reduce the dropout rate to zero,” said Patrick Sweeney, Patterson Unified School District superintendent. While the state’s old system of tracking dropouts relied mostly on individual schools and districts, the new system gives each student an identifying number and monitors his or her progress through school. Using these numbers, administrators can tell if a student graduated, dropped out, withdrew from school, changed schools, left the state, died or completed his or her education in other ways. Reasons for a student dropping out are varied, from family problems to academic struggles. Sweeney said more teacher training, intervention programs for students and improved parent communication have helped cut the district’s dropout rate. The number of local dropouts has declined, he said, thanks in part to district programs. Patterson High’s average annual dropout rate over the four years of the state’s report was 3.3 percent, while Sweeney said it used to be closer to 8 percent. But work still needs to be done to keep students in school. “This is a work in progress,” said Kathy Pon, assistant superintendent of educational services. The report showed that 16 percent of enrolled Latino students dropped out over four years, compared with just 5.4 percent of white students. Many of the district’s programs are already designed to combat the dropout rate among English-language learners. Pon said teacher training has been ongoing, even in the summer, to get more effective teaching strategies and methods into the classroom. Meanwhile, math and English intervention classes at the high school and the new Academy Program at Creekside Middle School, set to begin in August, are aimed at helping students directly. In the intervention classes, struggling kids get one-on-one help from teachers to improve knowledge of math or English. Creekside’s Academy Program will help middle school students who have academic or behavioral problems get individual attention, counseling and academic help before going back to normal classes. After-school tutoring is also available to those who struggle. At the high school, the Link Crew program helps incoming freshmen make an easier transition to high school life. Administrators will work with students this year on character-building and student community service projects. There’s help available for parents, too. Computer programs at local schools, such as Teleparent and SnapGrades, can send messages and updates to parents about their students’ school work and behavior, like a weekly progress report. The district also has put a focus on careers at the high school. The WorkKeys test measures a student’s job skills and then targets specific training that may fit those skills. When the student takes a copy of the WorkKeys test to a potential employer, the employer can assess the student’s strengths in the areas of math, locating information and reading information. “Our WorkKeys scores were the best in the county,” Sweeney said. “We put a big emphasis on career education and opened a career center (in the counseling office).” A $50 million school bond measure, proposed for the November ballot, could mean new facilities at the high school to build interest in hands-on careers. “With the school bond, we’ll be able to create a state-of-the-art agriculture, automotive and career center,” Sweeney said. According to the Department of Education Web site, dropout rates for alternative schools — including Del Puerto High School — are not computed, because these schools may have students who stay in classes for short periods of time and then return to their local traditional high school. Because this is the first time such data has been reported, the state is allowing districts about a month to review it with local records and make any necessary corrections. The districts will make an updated report in September, and from that information, educators can focus on programs that will help keep students in school.
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