High School Dropout Rate Shows Slight Increase in ’93 : Education: County’s overall figure is better than eight years ago--and still below the state average, according to report. Ventura district had largest gain.

Contrary to a statewide trend of fewer high school dropouts, the number of Ventura County students leaving school before they graduate has increased slightly, a state report shows.

Ventura County’s dropout rate is still below the state average and is far better than eight years ago, according to the report, to be released today.

But last year, the county’s dropout rate moved up from 9.8% to 11.7%, as more than 1,100 students from Fillmore to Oak Park stopped attending high school before graduation.

The sharpest increase by far in 1993 was in the Ventura Unified School District, where 180 students in 10th grade and above opted out of school, causing the dropout rate there to soar from 7.8% to 17%.

Most of the dropouts in Ventura were from the district’s El Camino independent study program, where students meet once a week with teachers and study at home.

“Throughout the year, some people just stop showing up,” program director Gabe McCurtis said.

Oxnard, Santa Paula, Simi Valley and Oak Park also reported slight increases in their dropout rates from 1992 to 1993.

Despite the recent increases in some districts, the overall dropout rates in most areas of the county have plunged since 1986, when the state began to track the figures.

Countywide, the number of 10th- through 12th-grade students who left school without a diploma has fallen over the past eight years from 17.1% to 11.7%.

Only the Ventura, Simi Valley and Conejo Valley unified school districts failed to lower their dropout rates during the eight-year period. But Conejo’s rate is already one of the lowest in the county.

The reason for this long-term improvement, officials said, is that schools are paying special attention to the needs of students with problems.

Across the county, a wide array of alternative education programs have cropped up that offer smaller classes, flexible schedules and more individualized attention--all aimed to serve students who have trouble succeeding at traditional public high schools.

Teen-age mothers in the Oxnard Union High School District, for example, are able to enroll in a Rio Mesa High School program that provides both baby-sitting and free transportation to school.

Without these amenities, Oxnard Assistant Supt. Gary Davis said, most of the 200 teen-age mothers at Rio Mesa would have dropped out.

And Oxnard has also invested in putting a school psychologist at every high school campus to meet with students who have serious family problems.

Besides reaching out to students whose family circumstances or academic problems may lead them to drop out of school, some districts are also paying special attention to the needs of Spanish-speaking students.

Nationwide, Latino students have for years had one of the highest dropout rates of any major ethnic group.

But California has dramatically reduced the dropout rate among Latinos over the past eight years from 35.1% to 22.3%. And many Ventura County districts are contributing to this improvement.

In the Moorpark Unified School District, the dropout rate for Latino students fell from 22.8% to 14.1% in 1993.

The progress came, school officials said, largely as a result of Moorpark High School’s expansion of its bilingual program.

“The dropout rate among Latino students has declined dramatically because we’re meeting their needs,” counselor Linda Muscarella said.

Conejo Valley, Santa Paula, Oxnard Union High and Ventura were the only districts in the county where the dropout rate for Latino students rose in 1993.

Although Conejo Valley’s overall dropout rate of 5.2% is the second lowest in the county after Oak Park Unified, the dropout rate for Latinos rose from 14% to 17.5% in 1993. The rate for white students was only 4.0%.

One reason for higher dropout rates among Latinos, school officials said, is that families of migrant workers often leave the area to get work.

“We have a larger amount of kids moving back and forth because of the job situation,” said Joseph Studer, principal of Apollo Continuation School in Simi Valley, where 18.6% of all 10th- through 12th-grade Latino students dropped out in 1993. “They’re leaving the district and leaving no forwarding address.”

In the Ventura district, the dropout rate among Latinos skyrocketed in 1993 from 18.1% to 29.1%, part of the overall rise in the number of students leaving school before graduating.

Ventura school officials said the overall dropout figures that they reported to the state for 1993 may be slightly inflated because they mistakenly counted 28 students who went on to attend adult school.

Even with this adjustment, however, the district’s dropout rate would have risen dramatically.

Part of the increase may reflect that, for the first time in 1993, the Ventura district included as dropouts students 18 years and older. The state counts all students up to age 21.

The Oak Park district also reported an increase in its dropout rate in 1993.

Two Oak Park students left school before graduating, causing the district to lose its 1992 distinction as one of the few districts in the state with a zero dropout rate.

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School Districts’ Dropout Rates

Class of Class of Class of % change % change District 1986 1992 1993 from 1986 from 1992 Conejo Valley 4.7 5.2 5.2 +10.6 0.0 Fillmore 11.3 16.0 6.5 -42.5 -59.4 Moorpark 30.5 10.3 5.6 -81.6 -45.6 Oak Park 6.8 0 1.4 -79.4 n/a Ojai 19.7 10.6 6.7 -66.0 -36.8 Oxnard Union 30.1 7.6 10.5 -65.1 +38.2 Santa Paula Union 27.7 13.8 15.0 -45.8 +8.7 Simi Valley 10.6 11.0 12.5 +17.9 +13.6 Ventura 9.4 7.8 17.0 +80.9 +117.9 County average 17.1 9.8 11.7 -31.6 +19.4 State average 25.0 16.5 15.3 -38.8 -7.1

Source: California Department of Education