High school dropout rates higher than state is reporting
By FULLER ROYAL
Staff Writer
The North Carolina State Board of Education trotted out its annual dropout report late last month and one state education watchdog group said that the rates are much higher than what’s being reported.
The Public School Forum of North Carolina (PSFNC) maintains that the way SBE reports dropout rates is misleading and that the actual dropout rate is twice as high.
SBE’s report shows that 5.4 percent of the state’s students dropped out during the 2005-06 school year. The Whiteville City Schools’ rate was 4.79 percent while the Columbus County Schools had a 5.34 percent dropout rate.
PSFNC points out that the average citizen would be left thinking that at 5.4 percent, roughly one out of 20 students was dropping out.
For that figure to be accurate, however, the rates from the previous three years must be added to the last year’s – because there are four years of students in the high school.
When dropout rates for school years 2002-03, 2003-04 and 2004-05 are added to 2005-06, the drop out rate increases to 19 percent for the state; 20 percent for Whiteville and 21 percent for Columbus County.
Instead of one in 20 students dropping out, the rate increases to one student in five not finishing high school.
Even then, PSFNC maintains that that figure is not accurate.
In a report issued last Friday, PSFNC said that what the state is failing to report is how few of the 2002-03 freshmen went on to earn their diplomas in June of last year.
In 2002-03, 116,550 students across the state enrolled in the ninth grade.
Of those students, only 76,940 completed high school with a diploma, while 39,610 did not.
That’s a state-wide dropout rate of 34 percent or 8-9 percent annually.
Only 66 percent of the 2002-03 freshmen in North Carolina earned a diploma in four years.
PSFNC reports that during the past three years, 120,000 students failed to earn diplomas within four years.
PSFNC’s report added that those numbers are low. They don’t take into account the annual enrollment of 25,000 plus students who moved into the state during the 10th, 11th and 12th grades.
Locally, the figures are worse that the state.
In 2002-03, 670 freshmen enrolled in the county schools and 239 enrolled in the city schools.
The average daily membership for that school year was 620 in the county and 229 in the city.
Last June, the county graduated 357 seniors from its three high schools. The city graduated 151 seniors.
If the rate of freshmen not earning a high school diploma is determined using the initial enrollment figures, the county schools have a 47 percent dropout rate while the city schools have a 37 percent dropout rate. Both systems combined would have a 44 percent dropout rate.
If the average daily membership is used to determine these numbers, then the county has a 42 percent dropout rate and the city a 30 percent dropout rate.
The combined dropout rate for both systems would be 40 percent.
Columbus County Schools Superintendent Dan Strickland said that the state – and his own school system – are going to have to look at things differently and begin targeting potential dropouts.
Students who quit school to attend Southeastern Community College are still classified as dropouts.
If a student moves away, he is a dropout unless he enrolls in a school in his new town.
SBE is planning a major overhaul of the high schools in two years. If SBE gets its way, this year’s seventh graders will face additional math and foreign language courses before they can earn a diploma.
The proposed changes could create cuts in arts and vocational courses.
Critics of the proposed changes say that increasing the difficulty in earning a high school diploma could drive the statewide dropout rate to 50 percent or higher.