High School Dropout Rates at Record Low

Orange County’s high school dropout rates have fallen by 27% over the past five years, hitting an all-time low, but the sudden falloff has raised questions about whether more students are completing their education or just getting by.

The latest figures officially released by the California Department of Education today show that Orange County’s dropout rate sank to 2.5% in 1996-97, the lowest percentage since the state began recording complete statistics six years ago. That was lower than the state figure, which fell to 3.3%, to a total of more than 51,000 dropouts last year.

“It really is something to rejoice about,” said Tessa Guevara, the county Department of Education’s attendance director, said of the decline. About 3,100 students dropped out of Orange County schools last year. “It shows that our local programs are working.”

School administrators credit the drop to more alternative education programs, which generally allow students--many with discipline and academic problems--to complete high school under less structured plans.

While the number of these programs, such as independent study and continuation classes, keep growing and have more than doubled over the past five years, some educators caution that these students are not graduating from programs that demand the kinds of knowledge and skills a high school diploma generally indicates.

“We need to be careful and not delude ourselves into thinking that a program at a continuation school or an independent study program has the same academic rigor as one you would find in a comprehensive high school,” said Capistrano Unified Supt. James A. Fleming.

Fleming, whose district’s dropout numbers have hovered over the 1.5% mark in past years, added that it is better nonetheless to engage students in some sort of educational program than to let them disappear from schools.

State Supt. of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin also drew a link between academic standards and dropout rates, saying Thursday that the lower rates should enable the state to raise standards.

“The declining dropout rate reinforces the notion that we can increase standards and call for higher education requirements,” she said.

Other school administrators contend that academic standards are not any lower at alternative programs.

“Students at alternative education programs are not just passing through, they are being held to the same standards to the other programs in districts,” said Kurt Harper, Santa Ana Unified’s coordinator of student discipline services.

Harper cited his district’s latest alternative program as one that has helped students stay in school.

The Community Day School, which opened in March, is an option to expulsion for delinquent junior high school students. It provides small classes and runs an 11-month-long school year, or 45 days more than a traditional school calendar.

Such measures, among others, have helped reduce the district’s dropout rate from 7.6% in 1995-96 to 5.9% last year, Harper added.

Santa Ana Unified, however, still has the largest number of dropouts in the county. Fullerton Joint Union High School District posted one of the lowest rates of with 1.1% for a large school system.

While the figures are improving, state schools chief Eastin urged districts to strive for lower dropout rates.

“[These numbers] mean that one out of seven freshmen will not graduate from high school with his or her class,” when these numbers are extrapolated over the four years it takes a student to graduate,” Eastin said in a news release. “We still need to do more to reduce the number of dropouts.”

Under state regulations, a student who misses 45 days of school and does not re-enroll in school, either in the same or a new district, is classified as a dropout. If a district loses track of a student after he or she moves, that case is also considered a dropout.

Statewide, the dropout rate was 5.1% for African Americans and 4.8% for Latinos. For white students, the rate was 2% and for Asian Americans, it was 1.7%. In all categories, females were less likely to drop out than males.

Those figures are all lower than those from the previous year.

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Dropout Rates

The dropout rate in Orange County has remained consistently lower than the staewide rate, though the latter has improved as well.

Orange County: 2.5%

Statewide: 3.3%

Staying the Course

The number of students dropping out of Orange County high schools fell 27% in the past five years. It also has remained consistently lower than the statewide rate, though the latter has improved as well. Santa Ana and Orange Unified districts had the county’s highest dropout rates in the most recent year for which data is available.

1996-97 Orange County Dropouts

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District Rate Number Anaheim Union High 1.1% 189 Brea-Olinda Unified 0.5 10 Capistrano Unified 1.6 158 Fullerton Joint Union High 1.1 150 Garden Grove Unified 1.5 183 Huntington Beach Union High 2.0 274 Irvine Unified 1.9 135 Laguna Beach Unified 0.8 6 Los Alamitos Unified 0.8 24 Newport-Mesa Unified 1.0 57 Orange Unified 2.7 219 Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified 0.9 64 Saddleback Valley Unified 1.6 142 Santa Ana Unified 5.9 694 Tustin Unified 0.4 16 Total 2.5% 3,174

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Source: California Department of Education

Orange County Dropouts, ‘96-’97: 3,174

Source: California Department of Education