Reports on Dropouts Met With Skepticism : Education: New computerized attendance record system in Centinela Valley Union High School District shows dramatic decrease in the dropout rate.

Figures released by the Centinela Valley Union High School District that show a significant decrease in the dropout rate over the last two years have caught three school board members by surprise.

A state report released on Dec. 4 said the overall dropout rate for grades 10, 11 and 12 for the 1986-87 school year was 16% at Hawthorne High School and 11.9% at Leuzinger High School.

Three days later, Centinela administrators released figures that showed the dropout rate for 1987-88 was 14.6% at Hawthorne and 11.5% at Leuzinger. The dropout rate took a further dive to 8.9% at Hawthorne and 5.7% at Leuzinger in 1988-89, according to the district.

Supt. McKinley Nash said the decrease can be attributed to a number of factors, including a new computerized attendance reporting system, which keeps more accurate dropout figures, as well as several special programs aimed at keeping students in school.

Three school board members said the new dropout numbers have caught them by surprise, and two of them questioned the accuracy of the district’s figures.

“I don’t know anything about a special program that has reduced (the dropout rate) so dramatically,” said board member Jacqueline Carrera, who was elected in November. “If it’s true, we should be marketing this.”

Another new board member, Pam Sturgeon, said she is not convinced that the district’s dropout rates could have dropped so much in such a short time.

“As far as I’m concerned I don’t feel they’re accurate,” said Sturgeon, who said she also suspects that the dropout rates from previous years were too high.

Board President Ruth Morales said she is also skeptical about the accuracy of the district’s dropout figures and said she would like to study the numbers further.

“I have problems giving out reports that we have performed miracles” in such a short time, she said.

The other two board members, Amparo Font and Michael Escalante, could not be reached for comment.

James Fulton, educational demographics manager for the state Department of Education, said he could not comment specifically on the Centinela district, but it is possible for dropout numbers to change dramatically when a district switches to a new attendance keeping system.

The dropout rate was a major point of debate during the November school board elections. During the campaign, Sturgeon, an accounts analyst, and Carrera, an accountant, both criticized the district dropout rate and said they would like administrators to study ways to reduce it.

Sturgeon, Carrera and Font, a bilingual teacher, won the three board seats, replacing incumbents Ann Birdsall, Aleta Collins and Herbert D. Bartelt.

Nash dismissed the skepticism and the questions about accuracy. “The numbers are there,” he said. “Talk to the principals. I don’t compile them.”

He said the dropout problem is at “epidemic proportions” in schools throughout the country, but he said Centinela officials have been making an extra effort to address the problem.

Nash said the new computer system the district introduced this year to keep attendance records at the two high schools has produced a dropout rate that is more accurate and lower than previously believed.

The system keeps attendence records and transfer information on computer files so that school officials can more quickly and more accurately monitor students who transfer in and out of the district, he said.

School officials said part of the reason it is difficult to keep accurate dropout figures is because about half of the student population enters or leaves the district each year.

Ed Gilliam, associate principal at Leuzinger High School, said the dropout rate has been significantly reduced through several programs created by the Students at Risk Committee, a group of 14 teachers, administrators, department heads and clerical workers, which was formed 2 1/2 years ago to tackle the dropout problem.

The group meets once a month to discuss ways to keep students from leaving school, he said.

Among the programs designed by the committee is a work-training program that enrolls students in vocational and technical training courses at the South Coast Regional Occupational Center in Torrance.

In September, most of the 600 students in that program were absorbed into the district’s Jobs for America Graduates program, a highly touted work-training and job-placement plan used in 280 other schools in 14 states.

Two years ago the committee also created the Mathematics Video Program, which lets students check out video tape recordings of teachers explaining mathematics lessons, Gilliam said. The program is advantageous, he said, because it allows students with math problems to take as much time as needed to study math lessons at home.

The committee also established a program requiring truant students to attend school on Saturday to make up for missed class time, he said. Gilliam said the truancy program provides a deterrent for students who are regularly truant.

Nancy M. Nuesseler, president of the 200-member Centinela Valley Secondary Teachers Assn., said she too is skeptical of the dropout figures because she believes the programs aimed at reducing the dropout rate have not had enough time to take effect.

“I really don’t know what the programs are accomplishing,” she said. “We are not given any feedback from the district.”

Sheila Steachowiak, president of the Centinela Valley Council PTA, said she is happy to hear about the reduced dropout rates but is concerned that the district is not paying enough attention to college-bound and special education students.

“There are lots of needs out there for the kids that I feel haven’t been met,” she said. Steachowiak has a son who graduated from Hawthorne High School last year and now attends El Camino College and another who graduated three years ago from the district’s special education program.

Nash said the district’s efforts to reduce the number of dropouts have not been at the expense of college-bound students. He said the district has many successful programs aimed at getting students into college and added that he has been criticized by some teachers for putting too great an emphasis on college preparation.

Ken Crowe, principal of Hawthorne High School, said he is not surprised by the lower dropout rates, because he believes the dropout figures the district has been using in the past were not accurate.

He said the new computer system is providing the district information about dropouts that is “much more accurate and realistic.”

Crowe said he is confident the dropout rate will continue to decrease with the help of other programs the district has implemented, such as the Truancy Abatement Program. Under this program, Hawthorne police officers pick up truant students they encounter during routine patrols and return them to the school.

TRACKING HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUT RATES The Centinela Valley Union High School District released these figures showing a decrease in the district’s dropout rate in the past two school years. HAWTHORNE HIGH SCHOOL 1987-1988

Grade Enrollment Dropouts 10 825 144 11 659 97 12 581 61 Total 2,065 302 Dropout rate 14.6%

HAWTHORNE HIGH SCHOOL 1988-1989

Grade Enrollment Dropouts 10 806 73 11 822 21 12 439 91 Total 2,067 185 Dropout rate 8.9%

LEUZINGER HIGH SCHOOL 1987-1988

Grade Enrollment Dropouts 10 870 67 11 577 82 12 515 77 Total 1,962 226 Dropout rate 11.5%

LEUZINGER HIGH SCHOOL 1988-1989

Grade Enrollment Dropouts 10 841 44 11 886 61 12 424 19 Total 2,151 124 Dropout rate 5.7%