Dropout statistics: It's all a numbers game
Last week from Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters:
Public Analysis for California Education, based at the University of California, Berkeley, released what is destined to become a highly controversial study concluding that the high school dropout rates at six of the state's largest urban school districts are only a fraction of what had been previously calculated.
If it were true, that's good news, right?
Then today, this:
Fresno Unified and other large school districts in the central San Joaquin Valley have under-reported their high school dropout rates, the state Department of Education said today.A new system of tracking students shows that 35.1% of Fresno Unified students dropped out during a four-year period ending in the 2006-07 school year, but the district reported that only 24.9% dropped out.
It will be interesting to keep following this, now that the state is tracking pupils with a statewide student identification number.
Comments
This is reminiscent of the scandal that resulted in the "early retirment" of Bush's Education czar, when it was learned that the Texas-model upon which became NCLB, was fudged with made-up dropout rates,...well OK, it wasn't a "scandal", just an item in the Bee one day, gone the next, NCLB,(I can't bear to write the asinine words) however, remained behind and apparently, the worst aspects of it's seriously flawed design have really inspired cash-starved school districts. Who got left behind?
Posted by: swift | July 16, 2008 7:17 PM
What has Fresno Unified to gain by lying about the dropout rate?
This is offensive to me:
"...the state is tracking pupils..." There was another state that tracked everybody; but it lasted only from 1933 to 1945.
Posted by: Isabell Lawson | July 16, 2008 7:27 PM
Who's to believe here? The fact we have a large number of students dropping out. In the meantime, schools are trying their darndest to reach out and still are criticized.
Posted by: A. Perales R. | July 16, 2008 10:39 PM
I see no reason why they shouldn't be tracked. If school districts are lying avout dropout rates then they are probably lying sbout enrollment and attendance. The high school exit exam is causing many to drop out because they cant pass the test. It shouldn't get to the last four years of school to determine that students don't know the information. If they learn it in the lower grades and not get passed to the next grade just to make the school district look good or because it isn'r socially exceptable the problem would be solved. All parents should know English to better help their children. We shouldn't have to take our children to tutors. That should be available to them at school.
Posted by: Jackie Krage | July 17, 2008 9:32 AM
In the short time lived in Fresno am gobsmacked at number of folks who have told that they never finished school. Some actually seems right proud of the fact.
MOI live on a road and in a community where one sees youths during the school year , not in school.
Ones sees high school age 'non english speaking' youths not going to school.
MOI does not need numbers to tell what is already known, that many young people in the area are not prepared for life as an adult, and that the lack of education will deny them a proper job.
What part of stupid do folks not get? What ever set of numbers used, it is unacceptable for so many youths in the area to lack a proper education.
The price to be paid for this will be very high in the future.
Posted by: RobDeFrees | July 17, 2008 11:32 AM