OXNARD : Student Dropout Rate Dips to 3.45%

The Oxnard Union High School District experienced a 3.45% dropout rate in the 1991-92 school year, down from 3.78% the previous year, according to a new district report.

A total of 404 students dropped out of school last year, down from 436 the year before, the report said.

“We feel good about that,” Gary Davis, assistant superintendent of educational services, said of the slight decrease. “But we’re still very concerned about those 404 students.”

Latinos, who represent more than half of the district’s student population, led the number of dropouts last year with 322. Anglos were second with 57 dropouts, followed by African-Americans with 13.

Five of the district’s schools decreased their dropout rate in 1991-92, while Oxnard High increased from 2.8% in 1990-91 to 3.4% last year. Frontier Continuation High School also reported a jump from 27% to 31%. (Continuation schools serve students who have had learning or discipline problems elsewhere.)

Districtwide, the highest concentration of dropouts was in the ninth grade.

The district’s total student population numbered 11,695 last year.

Many of the district’s Latino students have limited English-speaking skills, which is one of the reasons cited for the high dropout rate among this group, Davis said.

In addition to improving its bilingual education program, the district is developing a multicultural program that it hopes will help further decrease the dropout rate, he said. Objectives include revising instructional techniques and curriculum to focus more on the cultural characteristics of students.

The multicultural program, which also calls for more parent participation in the education system, is expected to be fully developed and in place by next May, Davis said.

The school board will discuss details of the program at its meeting tonight, beginning at 7 p.m. in the board’s meeting room at 309 S. K St.

Other county districts have not yet calculated or released their dropout rates for the 1991-92 school year. The state, which also has not released new dropout statistics, reported a rate of 6.2% in 1990-91.

Before the 1990-91 school year, the dropout rate in the Oxnard Union High School District had declined steadily from 11.7% in 1985-86 to 2.33% in 1988-89.