Pasadena Unified graduation rates remain flat

The dropout rate for Pasadena public high schools remained static at 13% last year despite increases in the percentage of students who graduated on time, according to statistics released Tuesday by the California Department of Education.

The statewide dropout rate decreased from 14.7% for the 2010-11 school year to 13.2% for 2011-12.

In Pasadena Unified, 78.7% of students who began high school in the fall of 2008 graduated last year — a smidge better than the statewide average of 78.6%.

In addition to the 13% of local students who dropped out, 7.9% were still enrolled in school, while a handful of others obtained their high school equivalency certificates or were special education students who aged out of the district.

Pasadena’s 2012 graduation rate was an improvement over 2011, when 76.2% of students finished after four years, and 2010, when 75.2% graduated on time.

Meanwhile, Pasadena’s dropout rate for black students has improved significantly over the past three years — from 19.7% in 2010 to 14.8% in 2012. Retention of Latino students has also improved, with dropout rates falling from 15.1% in 2010 to 12.4% in 2012.

Fal Asrani, hired two months ago as Pasadena Unified’s director of secondary education, said she expects to see stronger gains this year and beyond.

“I think we’re going to see steady progress, an increase in retention rates,” Asrani said. “There has been, and continues to be, a concerted effort to look at the problems we have, and work so that students find school more attractive and stay in school.”

In South Pasadena, 15 public high school students dropped out last year compared to 13 in 2011, bumping up the school district’s dropout rate from 3.4% to 4%

Less than 1% of San Marino High School students dropped out in each of the past two years.

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