1 in 10 schools are 'dropout factories'

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1 in 10 schools are 'dropout factories'

By NANCY ZUCKERBROD, AP Education Writer

55 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - It's a nickname no principal could be proud

of: " Dropout Factory, " a high school where no more than 60 percent

of the students who start as freshmen make it to their senior year.

That dubious distinction applies to more than one in 10 high schools

across America.

" If you're born in a neighborhood or town where the only high school

is one where graduation is not the norm, how is this living in the

land of equal opportunity? " asks Bob Balfanz, the researcher at

s Hopkins University who defines such a school as a " dropout

factory. "

There are about 1,700 regular or vocational high schools nationwide

that fit that description, according to an analysis of Education

Department data conducted by s Hopkins for The Associated Press.

That's 12 percent of all such schools, no more than a decade ago but

no less, either.

While some of the missing students transferred, most dropped out,

Balfanz says. The data tracked senior classes for three years in a

row — 2004, 2005 and 2006 — to make sure local events like plant

closures weren't to blame for the low retention rates.

The highest concentration of dropout factories is in large cities or

high-poverty rural areas in the South and Southwest. Most have high

proportions of minority students. These schools are tougher to turn

around, because their students face challenges well beyond the

academic ones — the need to work as well as go to school, for

example, or a need for social services.

Utah, which has low poverty rates and fewer minorities than most

states, is the only state without a dropout factory. Florida and

South Carolina have the highest percentages. About half of high

schools in those states classify as dropout factories.

" Part of the problem we've had here is we live in a state that

culturally and traditionally has not valued a high school

education, " said Jim , a spokesman for South Carolina's

Department of Education. He noted that South Carolina residents once

could get good jobs in textile mills without a high school degree,

but that those jobs are now much harder to come by.

Federal lawmakers haven't focused much attention on the problem. The

No Child Left Behind education law, for example, pays much more

attention to educating younger students. But that appears to be

changing.

House and Senate proposals to renew the five-year-old No Child law

would give high schools more federal money and put more pressure on

them to improve, and the Bush administration supports the idea.

The current law imposes serious consequences on schools that report

low scores on math and reading tests, such as having to replace

teachers or principals, but it lacks the same kind of teeth when it

comes to graduation rates.

Nationally, about 70 percent of U.S. students graduate on time with

a regular diploma. For Hispanic and black students, the proportion

drops to about half.

The legislative proposals would:

• Make sure schools report their graduation rates by racial, ethnic

and other subgroups and are judged on those. That's to ensure

schools aren't just graduating white students in high numbers, but

also are working to ensure minority students get diplomas.

• Get states to build data systems to keep track of students

throughout their school years and more accurately measure graduation

and dropout rates.

• Ensure states count graduation rates in a uniform way. States have

used a variety of formulas, including counting the percentage of

entering seniors who get a diploma. That measurement ignores the

fact that kids who drop out typically do so before their senior year.

• Create strong progress goals for graduation rates and impose

sanctions on schools that miss them. Most states currently lack

meaningful goals, according to The Education Trust, a nonprofit that

advocates for poor and minority children.

The current law requires testing in reading and math once in high

school, and those tests take on added importance because of serious

consequences for a school that fails. Critics say that creates a

perverse incentive for schools to encourage kids to drop out before

they bring down a school's scores.

" The vast majority of educators do not want to push out kids, but

the pressures to raise test scores above all else are intense, " said

Bethany Little, vice president for policy at the Alliance for

Excellent Education, an advocacy group focused on high schools. " To

know if a high school is doing its job, we need to consider test

scores and graduation rates equally. "

Little said some students pushed out of high schools are encouraged

to enroll in programs that prepare them to take the GED exam. People

who pass that test get certificates indicating they have high-school

level academic skills. But the research shows getting a GED doesn't

lead to the kind of job or college success associated with a regular

diploma.

Loretta Singletary, 17, enrolled in a GED program after dropping out

of a Washington, D.C., high school that she describes as huge,

chaotic and violent. " Girls got jumped, boys got jumped, teachers

(were) fighting and hitting students, " she said.

She said teachers had low expectations for students, which led to

dull classes. " They were teaching me stuff I already knew ... basic

nouns, simple adjectives. "

Singletary said she loved science but wasn't offered it and her

complaints to administrators went unanswered. " I was interested in

experiments, " she said. " I didn't have science in 9th or 10th

grade. "

A GED classmate of Singletary's is 23-year-old Dontike , who

attended and left two D.C. high schools on the dropout factory list.

was brought up by a single mother who used drugs, and he said

teachers and counselors seemed oblivious to what was going on in his

life.

He would have liked for someone to sit him down and say: " You really

need to go to class. We're going to work with you. We're going to

help you, " said. Instead, " I had nobody. "

Teachers and administrators at Baltimore Talent Development High

School, where 90 percent of kids are on track toward graduating on

time, are working hard to make sure students don't have an

experience like 's.

The school, which sits in the middle of a high-crime, impoverished

neighborhood two miles west of downtown Baltimore, was founded by

Balfanz and others four years ago as a laboratory for getting kids

out on time with a diploma and ready for college.

Teachers, students and administrators at the school know each other

well.

" I know teachers that have knocked on people's doors. They want us

to succeed, " 12th-grader Jasmine said during a lunchtime

chat in the cafeteria.

Fellow senior Haynes says she likes the way the school

organizes teachers in teams of four, each assigned to a group of 75

students. The teachers work across subject areas; English and math

teachers, for example, collaborate on lessons and discuss individual

students' needs.

" They all concentrate on what's best for us together, " Haynes

said. " It's very family-oriented. We feel really close to them. "

Teachers, too, say it works.

" I know the students a lot better, because I know the teachers who

teach them, " said 10th-grade English teacher Jenni

. " Everyone's on the same page, so it's not like you're

alone in your mission. "

That mission can be daunting. The majority of students who enter

Baltimore Talent Development in 9th grade are reading at a 5th or

6th grade level.

To get caught up, students have 80-minute lessons in reading and

math, instead of the typical 45 minutes. They also get additional

time with specialists if needed.

The fact that youths are entering high schools with such poor

literacy skills raises questions about how much catch-up work high

schools can be expected to do, say some high-school principals.

" We're at the end of the process, " says Mel Riddile, principal of

T.C. High School, a large public school in andria, Va.,

which is not on the dropout factory list. " People don't walk into

9th grade and suddenly have a reading problem. "