An annual report on statewide dropout rates, released earlier this month, shows that more students are staying in school, but educators say that a less than one percent spike in graduation rates is still “unacceptable.”

As they look for solutions while facing a huge state budget deficit that will likely be resolved by making major cuts to needed programs, some educators fear those rates may be reversed.

“We have to let learning be relevant, meaningful and interesting” in order to keep students engaged and willing to come to school, said Michelle Herczog, Ed.D consultant with the Los Angeles County Office of Education. “And what do we have going on in our schools? We are eliminating extra curriculum, career technical education, service learning, hands-on projects. … They’re squeezing out civic education, science education and social studies.”

According to the state Department of Education report, “68.3 percent of public school students in California graduated, up from 67.7 percent last year,” said the report. “The adjusted four-year derived dropout rate for the same school year is 20.1 percent, down from 21.1 percent last year.”

However, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell, said those figures are not good enough. “I am disheartened that the graduation rate is up slightly, but California’s dropout rate is still unacceptably high,” O’Connell said. “If we look deeper into the data, we see alarmingly high dropout rates among African-American and Hispanic students.”

According to the Education Department, African-Americans accounted for 35.8 percent of dropouts in 2006-07 and 34.7 percent in 2007-08; Latinos accounted for 26.7 percent in 2006-07 and 25.5 percent in 2007-08.

In Los Angeles Unified School District alone, 19,583 students grades 9-12 dropped out in 2007-08. The figure was adjusted and does not reflect the reported number, which was 17,060. Of the reported figure, Latinos accounted for 12,373 of dropouts, while African-Americans accounted for 2,626.

Compton Unified School District’s dropout rates were much lower in comparison. According to the state, 902 CUSD students, grades 9-12, dropped out. This figure was adjusted and does not reflect the reported number, which was 1,052. Of the reported, 657 were Latino, while 379 were African-American.

Inglewood Unified School District was even lower with a reported 268 dropouts.
“What we do know about dropouts is that there is not one single reason,” said Herczog. “There are individual issues [and] personal issues that these kids are challenged with such as crime, safety at home and teenage pregnancy. … When you talk to kids they’ll tell you ‘I don’t come to school because it’s not interesting, it’s not relevant to me. I have a child at home, I have to help the family, I need to get a job,’” she added. “They are looking at short-term immediate goals for their own survival and their family’s well being.”

But in the long run, O’Connell said, there are major consequences that not only affect that student, but their family, community and the state as a whole when they drop out of school.

“There are long-term economic repercussions from not graduating for the student, for their communities, and for our statewide economy,” O’Connell said. “These data provide even more evidence of the challenge and the moral imperative of closing the achievement gap as well as increasing graduation rates among all students.”

According to the California Dropout Research Project, which released its own dropout report in April, “compared to high school graduates, research shows that over a lifetime dropouts have increased dependence on public assistance, lower earnings, poorer health, and higher rates of unemployment, mortality, criminal behavior, and incarceration … all these factors generate substantial economic losses to the nation, state and local communities.”

“Even if half of all dropouts eventually graduate, the remaining half would contribute to more than $24 billion in economic losses to the state over their working lives,” said the report. “Reducing the number of dropouts by half would generate about $12 billion in savings to the state and would reduce the number of homicides and aggravated assaults by more than 14,000 per year.”

Dropout rates, though largely accurate, are compromised by several factors. Often times, said Herczog, the rates include students who have left one district but have enrolled in another district in the state, have enrolled in a district outside the state, or have been incarcerated or hospitalized.

To curtail this, Statewide Student Identifiers are expected to be used statewide, beginning fiscal year 2009-10. This system would take into consideration “28 different withdrawal codes used to categorize a student’s status,” said a statement for the state Department of Education. “Including whether they graduated, dropped out, completed their education in other ways, moved to a different state, transferred to another school, or are continuing as a fifth-year senior.”