Westminster High Attacks Staggering Dropout Rate

Ask the students in Anji Clemens’ third-year English class where they’re from, and a blizzard of responses come back.

“Vietnam,” answers the largest group, a cluster of about half a dozen students; Mexicans, Ecuadoreans and other Latinos form the next largest bunch, followed by an array of Asians, including Japanese, Chinese and Koreans. One girl sitting near the back of the room is from Europe, and a few Afghanis and an Ethiopian round out the eclectic mix.

“We’re a majority of minorities,” said Bonnie Maspero, the new principal at Westminster High School, a sprawling, 2,300-student campus in central Westminster. “This school represents what California will be like 25 years from now.”

But if Westminster High offers a glimpse of the future, it also suggests that there are formidable challenges ahead. The school already has struggled for the past decade to accommodate its demographic changes, in the process battling a decaying campus, low test scores and a staggeringly high dropout rate, one of the highest in Orange County.

Combined, those problems would be enough to make some school officials throw up their hands in defeat. But Westminster is fighting back with a rejuvenating dose of investment from the Huntington Beach Union High School District and a focused staff effort to turn the tide.

The district has pumped $150,000 into physical improvements at the school and is also funding a novel pilot program to combat the high numbers of dropouts, the school’s most troubling and persistent problem. Districts receive state funds based on the number of students who attend classes, so dropouts take a financial toll as well.

More than 260 Westminster students dropped out last year. Another 268 left the school to enter alternative education programs. Most who transfer to alternative education end up dropping out, so officials estimate that nearly 20% of Westminster’s student body left school without diplomas last year.

That dropout rate is twice the average for other schools in the district. At the low end of the scale, Edison High School, in Huntington Beach, has a dropout rate of 1.1%. Countywide, an estimated 7.2% of the county’s students drop out of school, according to Orange County Department of Education officials.

Although cautioning that its statistics are sketchy, the Education Department lists the high school districts in Fullerton and Anaheim as the two suffering from the highest dropout rates in Orange County. In the districts, dropout rates average 12.5%.

Across the county, dropout rates often parallel a school’s ethnic breakdown. Many immigrant children come from struggling families and must work to help support themselves. As a result, schools with large numbers of immigrants often have high dropout rates because children study just long enough to learn a few skills, then leave to work full time.

Westminster High is no exception. Anglos make up just 46% of the student body, down from about 90% two decades ago. Asian students make up 25% of the school population, and 37% of the students who dropped out. Asians make up the largest group of Westminster dropouts.

As the school’s student population has changed, dropouts have soared. Officials say that part of the high turnover rate can be attributed to the transient nature of residents living in rental apartments surrounding the campus.

“For the last 15 years, even before we were keeping accurate numbers, we knew that Westminster High School had the highest dropout rate in the district,” said Cathy McGough, the district’s Alternative Education/Dropout Study coordinator. “They have a real problem, and it’s gotten even worse in recent years.”

Alarmed by that history, Maspero quickly set out to attack the school’s dropout problem when she took over as principal last summer.

“She immediately took it on as her mission,” McGough said. “She came on board, and we dove right in.”

Some programs already were in place, but the cornerstone of the school’s redoubled efforts is PLUS, Positive Learning Units for Students. Under PLUS, a new program developed by Maspero and several Westminster teachers, 50 youngsters are enrolled in special classes where they get additional attention, slightly smaller classes and closer monitoring than most Westminster students.

The 50 students--who were identified as being “at risk,” based on their eighth-grade attendance patterns, grades and other factors--volunteered for the PLUS program, and the district agreed to give about $50,000 to test it. All students in the program are freshman, and most are minority students.

Officials say they will consider PLUS a success if dropouts decline by at least 10% this year, which would mean at least 25 students rescued from an uncertain future. What’s more, Maspero and others note, it would mean the program paid for itself by boosting school revenue, which is based on students’ average daily attendance.

Maspero will deliver a year-end report to the district on the program’s success, and school officials hope that more money next year will allow them to expand it to more students.

Under the PLUS program, students are guaranteed a student-teacher ratio of 25 to 1 in a school that averages more than 30 to 1. In addition, two dropout counselors have been hired to help students stay in school.

Teachers are handpicked for the program, and parents must agree to monitor their children’s homework for one hour a night, four nights a week. Parents are also expected to attend at least three conferences with teachers during the year.

“A parent is an extremely powerful ingredient in a student’s success,” Maspero said. “We’re saying, ‘We want you (the parent) here. We expect you to be here.’ ”

For the students, PLUS can mean a tough workload, because smaller class sizes make it harder to escape attention. Still, several students interviewed about the program endorsed it.

“There’s not so many students, so the teacher helps you more,” said Anh Ho, a ninth-grader who is enrolled in PLUS. She and her classmates were studying equations in science one day earlier this week.

Daniel Madrigal, another ninth-grade PLUS student, said he was in the program because he had avoided his schoolwork in earlier grades.

“I’m in this because I’m smart and everything, but I’m lazy,” he said, fidgeting outside his classroom. “This lets me be in a smaller class, and it means you get to be with the same people for three periods.”

Dropout rates are computed by measuring the number of students who do not attend any school for at least 45 consecutive days, so it is too early to judge whether Westminster’s program is producing the hoped-for results. But teachers and students at the school, as well as administrators at the district, agree that the turnaround is already under way.

Self-esteem programs are working to improve students’ self-image, they say, and physical improvements have put a new sheen on the campus.

Westminster High’s irrigation system, which for years languished in disrepair, has been fixed, and green patches now are spreading across the once-brown lawn. Water fountains torn from their casings years ago have been replaced, and a new computer center is being built.

More important, teachers say they sense a new enthusiasm from the PLUS pupils. With luck and hard work, they say, PLUS may transform its students just as the physical renovations have transformed the campus.

“The kids are feeling success about themselves and their program,” said Liz Haley, who has taught at Westminster High for 25 years. “We’re trying to get these kids what they need, and so far, they seem to be getting it.”

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WESTMINSTER HIGH’S CHANGING POPULATION

1972 1978 1980 1982 1988-89 American Indian .1% 1.0% 3.0% 2.6% 3.8% Asian/Pacific 1.2% 8.0% 14.0% 19.3% 25.2% Latino 10.0% 12.0% 12.0% 12.2% 24.0% Black .05% .4% 1.0% .5% .8% White 88.5% 78.6% 70.0% 64.5% 46.2%

Note: figures for 1988-89 are approximate.

DROPOUTS

1981-82: 192 students dropped out to enter alternative education. 109 students dropped out completely. 1988-89: 268 students dropped out to enter alternative education. 268 students dropped out completely. Source: Bonnie Maspero, principal of Westminster High School.