accurate dropout data in California - editorial

[George Sheridan <learn@jps.net>]

Editorial: News on dropouts is bad, but at last it's accurate
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Finally able to track every student, schools can see what needs to be done to
improve
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http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/1093633.html

Published in The Sacramento Bee Saturday, July 19, 2008
Story appeared in METRO section, Page B6


Now that California has a more accurate picture of the number of students who
quit school between Grade 9 and Grade 12, the real work begins.

The state's real dropout rate for 2006-2007 is much higher than was ever
officially reported: 24.2 percent, or a whopping 127,292 students.

That's up from the reported number of 67,000 students for the year before. This
doesn't mean we have twice as many dropouts as in 2005-2006. What it means is
that dropouts no longer are invisible. We're finally counting them, not hiding
them in unverified statistics.

With the state's new data system, which is based on each student having an
individual identifier, we can know exactly what happens with each student.

Here's an example. Under the old reporting system, schools were supposed to get
"acceptable documentation" when a student left for another school. But there was
little incentive to do so. Now schools will be on the spot to make sure a student
who leaves actually enrolls in another school. If the student doesn't actually
show up at another school, the student will be counted as a dropout. That's as it
should be.

In most districts in our region, the new reporting system revealed higher dropout
rates than the old system did. For example, in Sacramento City Unified, dropouts
doubled from 508 to 1,014 students. Hiram Johnson High School went from 82
reported dropouts to 191 actual dropouts.

An associate superintendent in a Thursday story in The Bee tried to excuse these
higher numbers by saying that the school has a high transfer rate. But students
who actually transfer aren't counted as dropouts. Hiram Johnson's dropout numbers
went up because the school did not verify that students actually enrolled in
another school. These students fell through the cracks. That has to change.

In our region, three comprehensive high schools have dropout rates above the
statewide rate of 24.2 percent: Hiram Johnson (35.4 percent) and Luther Burbank
(27.3 percent) in Sacramento City Unified, and San Juan High School (25.4
percent) in San Juan Unified. These are the schools where problems are most
concentrated. They need fundamental changes in every area.

None of the comprehensive high schools in Elk Grove Unified, Folsom-Cordova
Unified, Grant Joint Union or Natomas Unified has a dropout rate above the state
average (though many are above 10 percent). But all districts in the region have
alternative high schools (which serve at-risk students) with dropout rates far,
far above the state average. This, too, is an area for concentrated effort.

California cannot afford to have one-quarter of its students dropping out of high
school. As Superintendent Jack O'Connell said Wednesday, the state's schools need
to focus on transitions ? when students move from middle school to high school
and from one school to another.

Incoming Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, calls
reforming California's middle and high schools "California's most important
agenda" and says it will be his top priority next year.

The new reporting system, which won't allow students to slip through the cracks
and be forgotten, is a first step in achieving that goal.

George Sheridan