State’s High School Graduation Rate Rises for Sixth Straight Year

The rate at which California students graduated from high school inched up again last year, continuing a six-year trend, according to data released by the state Wednesday.

About 68.7% of the class of 2000 received diplomas last year, up from the previous year’s 68.3%, figures from the California Department of Education show.

Once again, Orange County bested the state as a whole, climbing from an estimated 72% in 1999 to 73.2% last year.

However, the same report indicated that only 11% of students who had enrolled in ninth grade four years earlier were officially listed as dropouts. Unaccounted for are the remaining one-fifth of students who began high school in 1996.

Orange County had its share of mystery students as well. With a dropout rate of 8%, nearly 20% of students are unaccounted for, according to an analysis of state figures.

The department acknowledged that it has no way of telling how many of the missing students repeated grades, left the state, earned high school equivalency certificates, went to adult school or transferred to private schools.

Delaine Eastin, state superintendent of public instruction, said she was encouraged by the slight bump in the reported percentage of students graduating.

She said, however, that at a time when the job market requires more academic skills, “there is much more to be done to ensure that every student in California graduates from high school fully prepared to meet the future.”

Lowering the state’s dropout rate has been a goal since the mid-1980s, but California has yet to achieve the sort of sophisticated data-gathering system needed to track student mobility and other factors.

Such a computerized system, which ideally would assign each student an identification number, is being developed, but districts are not required to participate. The program is expected to be completed in 2005.

“We are moving very gradually to include more districts,” said Doug Stone, a spokesman for the education agency, “but we are still a minimum of four to five years away.”

Under state law, California’s new Academic Performance Index, the cornerstone of Gov. Gray Davis’ school accountability system, must include attendance and graduation data--but only once the department deems the figures to be accurate and complete.

According to the state figures, Orange County’s dropout rate climbed slightly from 7.9% last year to 8% this year.

The Orange County Department of Education’s alternative school programs, which serve students who have been expelled from their own school district or have special needs, posted the biggest increase, from 58% to 60.3%

Byron Fairchild, who is the operations administrator for the Alternative Education Program, said he was concerned but “not too alarmed” by the figures.

“We’re getting a more difficult child to begin with,” he said. And he speculated that students may be discouraged by the high school exit exam and other tests.

In the Anaheim Union High School District, meanwhile, officials were delighted to see their drop-out rate decline from 3.9% to 3%.

“I’m elated,” said Anaheim Union board president Kathy Smith. “And I’m telling you, I think perhaps the figures are starting to show some positive results of all the wonderful things we are doing in our district ot help kids understand that staying in school is a solution to a happy life.”

Los Angeles County overall had a dropout rate of 13.8%.

The department computed dropout rates by county, district and school as well as statewide. However, it calculated the graduation rate only on a statewide basis.

Donna Rothenbaum, a consultant in the department’s demographics office, said it is impossible to compute accurate graduation rates for individual schools, districts or counties. High turnover and transfers between schools can drastically change the makeup of a class at any given school, she said.