State Dropout Report Irks Some Districts

Officials of suburban school districts that fared well in the newly released state survey of dropout rates commended the report while officials of districts that did poorly say the arithmetic of state schools Supt. Bill Honig just doesn’t add up.

“It’s a false measure,” said David Aponik, director of management information services for the 11,500-student Burbank Unified School District. Honig’s report said that district had a 24.1% dropout rate over the last three years.

“If the intent is to wake up communities and school districts, we have no problem with that; but let’s play fair,” Aponik said. “Our beef is with the state for using a faulty methodology.”

Susie Lange, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Education, defended the state’s calculations. She said that for the last three years districts have been required to submit dropout statistics each fall.

Dropout Rate

The dropout rate was derived from the sophomore class that enrolled in the fall of 1985 and graduated in the spring of 1988. Each year, districts were required to submit the number of dropouts from that class. To get a percentage, the total number of dropouts from that class over three years was divided by the number originally enrolled as sophomores.

The dropout percentages do not include students who have moved to other districts.

“What we’ve derived comes out of what numbers they sent us,” Lange said. “Our reporting system is totally dependent on the diligence of people on the local level.”

Part of the confusion, she said, comes because school districts normally calculate their dropout rates on a yearly basis. The state numbers cover a three-year period.

Wrong Figures

Still, Aponik and officials from other districts that showed high dropout rates--such as the Moorpark, Antelope Valley and Oak Park unified school districts--say the state figures are wrong.

In the tiny Oak Park Unified School District, which is in an affluent area of southeastern Ventura County, the state reported a 17% dropout rate for students who enrolled as sophomores in the fall of 1985.

But Robert Sutton, former principal of the district’s only high school, said he can’t recall more than five students who dropped out of the 360-student Oak Park High School in the past six years. “It’s got to be an error,” said Sutton, who left the school in November to become a district administrator.

Antelope Valley Unified Supt. Kenneth Brummel said the state numbers do not account for a significant number of students who fail to graduate with their class because they are held back a grade. He said the dropout rate among the district’s three high schools is closer to 12%, rather than the 40% listed in the state report.

But officials of the Glendale Unified School District, which had a 13.1% dropout rate, said the state report is accurate.

“We’ve been losing a little more than 4% a year,” said Gary Hess, the district’s director of student services. “I feel good about it.”

Aggressive dropout prevention programs in Glendale and eastern Ventura County’s Conejo Valley Unified School District have reduced the problem, officials of those districts said.

The Conejo district, which serves the predominantly white and upper-middle-class city of Thousand Oaks, had only a 7.3% dropout rate over three years. That low percentage comes from good school programs and high expectations by area parents, Assistant Supt. Richard Simpson said.

“Education is highly valued in this community,” Simpson said. “About 75% to 80% of our seniors start college.”

SCHOOL DROPOUT RATES Chart shows dropout rates for various valley-area districts. The rate is a percentage calculated by counting the dropouts from the 10th-grade class of 1985-86 as it continued through high school, then dividing the total number of dropouts by the original 10th-grade enrollment.

Statewide: 22.7% L.A. Co.: 29.1 L.A. Unified: 39 Burbank: 24.1 Glendale: 13.1 Las Virgenes: 9.9 Wm. S. Hart: 20 Ant. Valley: 40 Ventura Co.Countywide: 13.1 Conejo Valley: 7.3 Simi Valley: 10 Moorpark: 23.5 Oxnard Union: 17.1 Oak Park: 17