County Schools Lower Dropout Rate for 3rd Year

For the third consecutive year, schools in Los Angeles County reduced their dropout rates last year, according to state figures released Thursday.

In the 1996-97 school year, 4.6% of the county’s high school students dropped out, compared with 5.4% the year before, a 15% improvement.

Dropout rates for all the state’s school districts will be released on the Internet today. They show a continuing trend that has cut the dropout rate by more than half since 1986-87, to a statewide low of 3.3%.

State Supt. of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin attributed the gains to the success of alternative educational programs for students at risk of dropping out.

“Yet we still need to do more to reduce the number of dropouts,” Eastin said.

In the Los Angeles Unified School District, the dropout rate fell from 9.2% to 7.4%. That was an improvement of about 20%, but the rate was still far above the state average.

LAUSD Supt. Ruben Zacarias, who has focused on the dropout problem this year, received the news with equal satisfaction and disappointment, a spokesman said.

“The number indicates we’re still more than twice as high as the state average,” said spokesman Brad Sales. “He finds that unacceptable.”

Zacarias planned a ceremony today at Manual Arts High School, which has achieved stunning success in reducing dropouts.

Using aggressive attendance checks and parental involvement, the school slashed its annual dropout rate in two years from 27.5% to less than 2%.

“He’s taken a close look at what Manual is doing,” Sales said. “He’s going to work to see the other secondary schools follow suit.”

Zacarias intends to challenge every middle school and senior high in the district to get below the state average in two years.

Like Eastin, some districts cited new programs for their improved dropout rates. At the Long Beach Unified School District, which experienced the county’s greatest improvement, officials cited the opening of a new preparatory academy, which is a mandatory remedial school for all eighth-graders who flunk more than one class.

But diligence in keeping track of students was also a significant factor in Long Beach, said school spokesman Dick Van Der Laan.

Several smaller San Fernando Valley-area school districts saw their dropout rates increase, though the percentage of students leaving remained below the state and LAUSD figures.

Antelope Valley Union High reported a dropout rate of 2.1%, up 1% over the previous year. The Glendale Unified School District’s rate rose .7%, to 1.3%.

In Santa Clarita, the William S. Hart Union High School District reported a .1% increase, to 1.9%. Acton-Agua Dulce Unified reported that two of its 529 students left school--which was two more than the year before. In Burbank, the dropout rate held steady at 2.3%.

Elsewhere, poor record keeping was blamed for a poor showing.

In Alhambra, two of the three high schools maintained rates below 2%, but the third went up significantly, Assistant Supt. Dianne Saurenman said.

An investigation showed that the school hadn’t worked hard enough to track down students who stopped coming to school. “We know our paperwork needs to be improved,” Saurenman said.

Many of these missing students were not really dropouts, but had merely left the district and were enrolled elsewhere.

“Some of the problem is students are not staying in the United States,” Saurenman said. “Very often we never get a request for records.”

Los Angeles school officials acknowledged that they encountered the same problems in prior years and attributed a portion of the district’s improvement to improved record keeping.

Eastin said the state is concerned about dropout rates because of the enormous economic disadvantages to those who fail to complete school.

New programs designed to prevent dropouts have included individual instruction to keep students in school, allowing students to spend a year or two longer in school to complete required subjects and special services for pregnant teenagers.

Eastin acknowledged that the one-year dropout rate does not reflect the number of students who fail to graduate. That figure, due to be released next month as part of the annual high school performance survey, is roughly four times the dropout rate.

The Internet address for district dropout rates is: https://www.cde.ca.gov.

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Declining Dropout Rates

The dropout rate in most Los Angeles County high school districts has declined since the 1992-93 school year. Here is look at the percentages of students who dropped out of selected districts:

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District ‘92-93 ‘93-94 ‘94-95 ‘95-96 ‘96-97 El Monte Union High 4.2 3.2 2.2 2.9 1.8 Long Beach Unified 9.5 10.1 11.1 10.2 4.8 Los Angeles Unified 10.5 10.9 9.2 7.4 Pasadena Unified 8.6 7.6 6.6 4.6 2.9 Whittier Union High 2.7 3.0 3.3 2.6 3.1 Countywide 7.0 7.1 6.6 5.4 4.6

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Source: California Department of Education