County’s Dropout Rate Stays the Same : Education: About 12.4% of high school students left school in 1990. The figure for 1989 was similar.

The number of students who dropped out of Ventura County’s public schools has held steady for two years, according to a report released Tuesday by the state Department of Education.

About 12.4% of high school students dropped out in 1990, the same rate as that of the class of 1989, the report showed. Over the past five years, the number of dropouts has decreased countywide by 27.5%.

In comparison, the statewide dropout rate for 1990 was 20.2%, a decrease of 19.2% since 1986, the report showed.

But some local school officials disputed the state figures, saying that state calculations favor large districts and that their counts are more accurate.

“Ventura County looks strong as far as bringing the rates down countywide,” state Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig said.

Ventura County school officials credit efforts that begin as early as elementary school, special counseling programs and weekend and after-school programs with bringing the rates down.

The Oxnard Union High School District, in particular, has measured a dramatic decline in the number of dropouts, from 30.1% in 1986 to 6.2% last year, or a decrease in the dropout rate of 79.4%.

“You can make a substantial difference in dropout rates if you just attend to the problem,” Oxnard Union High Supt. Ian Kirkpatrick said. “Once you begin to look, you can turn things around pretty fast.”

In an interview, Honig praised the six-school, 11,000-student Oxnard district Tuesday for its innovative programs to keep students in school.

“Oxnard is really organized, and I guess it made a difference,” Honig said. “I think that’s one of our best success stories.”

The district has a psychologist at each school--five of them bilingual. Each campus has attendance advisers and night callers who telephone parents to let them know if their children are not in school. And a program in the middle schools identifies and helps potential eighth-grade dropouts before they begin their high school years, Christine Smith, director of student services, said.

The efforts have been so successful that a volunteer community committee, which has met once a month since about 1984, is now turning its attention toward improving academic achievement, Smith said.

In the Santa Paula Union High School District, according to state figures, the number of dropouts has increased a whopping 69%, from 27.7% in 1986 to 47% last year, or nearly half its students.

Supt. Carolina Erie, however, disputed those figures. In filling out the report, Erie said, district officials misinterpreted the instructions and counted students who had left the district the previous school year, along with students who were absent and unaccounted for for at least 45 consecutive days--the state’s official definition of a dropout.

Erie said Santa Paula’s dropout rate is actually about 13.5%, not 47%. “I’m glad it was such a large discrepancy because it really leaped out at us,” she said.

She said state officials have asked the district to amend its report and explain the discrepancy.

Supt. Andrew Smidt of the Ojai Unified School District also said figures for his district were erroneous.

“I don’t think the rate that they’re showing actually reflects the situation in Ojai,” Smidt said. “It’s been a high priority for us to try to keep kids in school, and we’re disappointed when the numbers don’t reflect that.”

Smidt said principals at Nordhoff High and Chaparral Continuation School, Ojai’s two high schools, studied the state’s figures last week and reported back to him.

According to district calculations, Nordhoff’s dropout rates averaged between 7% and 7.5% in recent years, with a high of 11.6% three years ago. And dropout rates at Chaparral--whose students were not included in the state report--ranged from 13% to 14.8%, Smidt said.

Smidt said state officials had recalculated the rate including Chaparral students and came up with a figure of 20.4%, but Ojai officials believe that is still too high.

In the Ventura Unified School District, dropout rates have climbed since 1986 from 9.4% to 13.8%, the report showed. From 1989 to 1990, however, the rates fell by 1.9%. Ventura officials could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

From 1989 to 1990, dropout rates also declined in the Conejo Valley, Fillmore, Moorpark and Simi Valley unified school districts.

Ventura County Dropout Rates

Class of Class of Class of No. of % Change School District 1986 1989 1990 Droputs since ’86 Conejo Valley Unified 4.7 6.6 5.4 78 +14.9 Fillmore Unified 11.3 17.8 7.9 17 -30.1 Moorpark Unified 30.5 17.7 16.3 39 -46.6 Oak Park Unified 6.8 1.9 5.2 6 -23.5 Ojai Unified 19.7 17.8 23.7 45 +20.3 Oxnard Union High 30.1 7.2 6.2 161 -79.4 Santa Paula Union High 27.7 19.7 47.0 160 +69.7 Simi Valley Unified 10.6 15.5 14.3 212 +34.9 Ventura Unified 9.4 15.7 13.8 141 +46.8 COUNTYWIDE TOTALS 17.1 12.4 12.4 859 -27.5 STATEWIDE TOTALS 25.0 21.4 20.2 65,179 -19.2

Source: State Dept. of Education