South Gate High School Gets an A (and Dividends) for Attendance : Education: Earnest tracking and personal attention have resulted in the lowest dropout rate in the L.A. Unified School District.

South Gate High School’s aggressive efforts to keep students in class have earned the school the best attendance record and the lowest dropout rate among all 49 Los Angeles Unified School District high schools.

In the first three months of this school year, more than 95% of students were in class every day. And just 6% of students dropped out in 1990-91, the latest year for which figures are available, compared to 14.7% districtwide.

Teachers and administrators attributed their success to strict attendance policies and efforts to work personally with truants and their parents. The low dropout rate, they said, is likely the result of those efforts.

“The biggest difference is that everyone--faculty, staff and volunteers--is putting much more time into working with individual students and individual problems,” said South Gate High Assistant Principal James Alther, who oversees the school’s attendance office. “It is time-consuming, but it has paid a large number of dividends. We’re seeing more students graduate and improve in their classes.”

Alther said teachers aggressively enforce a state education policy that prohibits makeup work for truant students who have no reasonable excuse for being absent. Reasonable excuses would include an illness with a doctor’s note, a family crisis or a court appearance.

Seniors and their parents also sign attendance contracts in which the students agree to forgo privileges such as the prom and the annual senior trip if they are absent more than eight days in a school year. Students can earn back their privileges if they have perfect attendance over subsequent periods set by administrators.

“The policy is clear to kids and we carry through with any threats we make,” said Cristina Esturo, who teaches Spanish. “It doesn’t matter if you are a football player or a cheerleader. If you are absent (without a valid excuse), you will face the consequences.”

Alther’s office maintains a daily absentee printout, looking for patterns that may reveal health or home problems. Students who are absent two to three days in a row will typically receive a call at home, he said. Those who can’t be reached by phone will often be visited by a teacher or administrator.

In addition, teachers or administrators typically meet with students after a third absence in a semester. After four or more absences, or if a truancy pattern develops, a call is typically placed to parents, Alther said. And when a student misses seven or more days in a semester, a parent-teacher conference is usually held.

“The priority is to deal with (truant) students as soon as possible,” Principal Raul Moreno said. “In the past, we dealt with (them after their truancy) was already a problem. We have to nip it in the bud. It seems that the effort has snowballed. The teachers have gotten behind it.”

Moreno also credited Alther’s efforts since September, 1990, to make attendance a priority among school staff.

For the 1991-92 school year, an average of 93.8% of South Gate High’s 3,852 students attended classes daily. That figure went up to 95.3% through Nov. 13 of this school year, according to the district figures. The average attendance rate for the district’s 49 regular senior highs--grades nine to 12--was 85.5% during the same period.

South Gate High’s dropout rate was 6.6% in the 1989-90 school year and 6% for 1990-91, far below the school district averages of 16.8% and 14.7%, respectively. The 1989-91 figures are the most current available.

In the three years before Alther headed the office, the school achieved no higher than an 86.5% annual attendance record. Because the state allots money to schools based on average daily attendance, South Gate’s increase in attendance over the last two years has earned the district an estimated $589,000 more than if attendance had remained at the 1989-90 rate of 84.9%.

Annual dropout rates began to decline the year before he assumed the post, and the trend has continued--in 1989-90, 550 seniors graduated; the figure rose to 571 in 1990-91 and 645 in 1991-92.

Alther also attributed the low dropout rates to a program at Harbor College that allows about 150 students, ages 17 to 20, to make up elective credits they have failed to complete at the high school.

But administrators also credited strategies that they said induce students to come to school. Final exams are scheduled through the last week of classes, and home rooms compete against each other for attendance records, rewarded with prizes such as pizza parties and school pins. Certificates also are awarded for perfect attendance and Alther is trying to get local businesses to offer discounts to those who have perfect records.

In addition, teachers and administrators said the school’s college advisory center and its counseling programs also have contributed to its success.

And although the school continues to rely on an automated, prerecorded message system to notify parents of daily truancies, several teachers said they spend time outside the classroom helping troubled students.

When senior Arturo Lerma was out sick for 10 days last spring with a stomach ailment, Esturo delivered his Spanish class homework, Lerma recalled.

“A lot of the teachers here are like that,” said Lerma, 16. “They’re kind and they care a lot. I like to keep my grades up. Every time I miss school I get behind. I come to school so I won’t miss my work.”