State high school dropout rate dips slightly in 2005-06.

Byline: Anne Williams The Register-Guard

More Oregon high school students appear to be heeding the mantra to stay in school, according to statistics released Tuesday by the state Department of Education.

The statewide dropout report showed that 4.1 percent of students left school in 2005-06, a historic low that's down a hair from the previous year's 4.2 percent.

Since the department began tracking in 1991-92, the rate has fluctuated between 5.7 percent and 7.4 percent, but has stayed below 5 percent for the past five years.

Pat Burk, the department's chief policy officer, said the trend might seem surprising given Oregon's notoriously large high school class sizes.

"Funding has been difficult, so you would expect in some ways for the schools' ability to reach more kids to have been impaired, but this data seems to be saying schools are doing a better job of engaging kids and holding them in school," he said.

But Burk said other factors at play may have had the opposite effect.

For starters, he said, schools are being held accountable like never before. In particular, under the federal No Child Left Behind law, schools with high dropout rates automatically miss progress targets.

Many schools are intervening earlier and more aggressively with struggling students, he said, and more districts have launched alternative programs designed to help students make up credits and regain confidence.

In addition, Burk said, schools are finding ways to make learning more relevant through real-world internships and projects, as well as partnerships with community colleges.

"I think there's a growing sense, as well, that some education after high school is almost a given," he said, noting that it's more difficult nowadays to drop out of high school and find a well-paying manufacturing job. "I think kids are more and more convinced they have to set their sights on future education after high school."

He noted that, historically, dropout rates have tended to rise as the unemployment rate falls, with students presumably leaving to take advantage of a hot job market.

That trend began to change in 2000, he said, with more students staying in school despite a strong economy.

Eugene dropout rate down

The state defines a dropout as a student in grade nine, 10, 11 or 12 who withdraws from school without transferring elsewhere or receiving a high school diploma, G.E.D. or modified diploma. The one-year rate is calculated by dividing the number of students who graduate with a diploma by the number of students who began 12th grade, plus the number of dropouts in the lower grades.

The state recently began tracking students through individual student identification numbers.

The state also calculates a four-year dropout rate, which estimates the proportion of the freshman class that would be likely to drop out before graduation, based on the current year's data. That rate actually rose from 11.3 percent in 2004-05 to 13.7 percent.

While the dropout rate fell overall and among white students, it rose slightly among black, Asian, Hispanic and Native American students.

In Lane County, most districts posted one-year rates that were below the state average - 2.2 percent in Eugene, down from 3.1 percent in 2004-05, and 3.5 percent in Springfield for the second year in a row. Bethel's rate was one of the few that exceeded the average, jumping to 5.9 percent from 4 percent the previous year.

In most small local rural districts, where numbers are so low that just a couple of dropouts can sink the rate, fewer than 3 percent of students dropped out, and in several districts, including Crow-Applegate-Lorane, none did.

Small school touted

Ron Osibov, principal at Crow Middle/High School, said he's convinced "small is beautiful."

"We have more personal relationships, and fewer students fall through the cracks," said Osibov, whose school of 162 has had only a handful of dropouts in the last five years. "We have a real good handle on every student. That's probably the most significant thing. ... What's amazed me is we've got such an involved staff. They reach out. There are, I'd say, four or five staff members in particular that just will not let a kid go."

Burk said state officials are optimistic that the dropout rate will continue to shrink, even as the state begins phasing in new, more stringent graduation standards set to take effect for the class of 2014 - chief among them an additional credit in science and a requirement for three math credits at the algebra I level or above.

"From other states, we've seen that increasing the rigor and value of a diploma actually lowers the dropout rate," he said, noting that many students tend to rise to meet the expectations set for them, assuming they get the support they need to do so.

Not everyone is convinced.

"We're worried about it," Bethel Superintendent Colt Gill said. "We're worried about it for our students who have trouble meeting the current standards. We're not worried about it for the bulk of our students."

DROPOUT RATES

Here's the percentage of students who dropped out of Lane County high schools in the 2004-05 and 2005-06 school years, plus state and district figures. To view the full report, visit www.ode.state.or.us/search/page/?id=1.

Schools/districts 05-06 04-05

Oregon 4.1 4.2

Eugene District 2.2 3.1

Churchill High 1.1 1.1

North Eugene High 1.2 2.0

Sheldon High 1.8 1.7

South Eugene 1.1 1.6

Churchill Alternative 1.9 5.5

North Eugene Alternative 5.4 0.7

Opportunity Center 9.1 21.8

Network Charter 8.1 4.9

Springfield District 3.5 3.5

Springfield High 3.6 4.4

Thurston High 1.8 2.1

Gateways Learning Center 8.8 3.8

Bethel District 5.9 4.0

Willamette High 3.8 1.7

Kalapuya High 12.5 12.3

South Lane District 4.0 5.1

Cottage Grove High 1.7 1.6

Al Kennedy Alternative 14.2 20.0

Blue Mountain Charter 7.7 2.3

Child's Way Charter 0.0 0.0

Fern Ridge District 5.5 2.7

Elmira High 3.3 2.9

West Lane Technical Learning Center 12.7 1.5

Willamette Leadership Academy 0.0 0.0

Blachly District 0.0 0.0

Creswell District 1.7 0.0

Crow-Applegate-Lorane District 0.0 0.0

Junction City District 2.5 2.9

Lowell District 2.2 0.0

Mapleton District 1.2 10.1

Marcola District 0.9 0.0

McKenzie District 2.2 1.1

Oakridge District 2.8 4.6

Pleasant Hill District 1.6 3.2

Siuslaw District 5.6 5.0

- Oregon Department of Education