vballmom

Nearly 1 in 4 of California's 6.3 million students drop out of school, according to new statistics released Wednesday by the California Department of Education.

The report, based on a new, more precise data system that tracks individual students, provides a more accurate snapshot of what educators consider a severe dropout crisis. The number is nearly double previous estimates.

"It represents a tremendous loss of potential," said state schools chief Jack O'Connell in a conference call.

The dropout data plainly reveals, in the most stark terms ever, the depths of the achievement gap - the academic chasm that separates black and Latino students from their white and Asian peers.

For black students, the dropout rate is 41.6 percent. Latinos, who make up nearly half of California's public school students, have a dropout rate of 30.3 percent - and in Santa Clara County the rate is 37.1 percent. Statewide, white students have a 15.2 percent dropout rate, while Asians have a 10.2 percent rate.

Home - San Jose Mercury News

sybbie719

Ok, while I cannot find the article from the link provided, did they state the main reasons or factors contributing to the drop out rate? For many students the major reason for dropping out is money to continue paying for school followed by family commitiments such as caring for the family. Often times low income students have jobs that directly contribute to maintaining the family. When the student goes to school a major source of income for the family is now lost.

MQD

In the 90's the San Mateo County Sequoia Unifed School District (just north of Silicon Valley) found that a high majority (70 ish percent) of their drop outs were their "gifted" youth. I'll bet a high percentage of the 70% had unaddressed learning issues as well. To help lower the number of drop outs they created a magnet school for the gifted crowd in the elementary/middle school that feeds the hs and then created an IB program in the hs. I do not know the ultimate outcome ... who their drop outs are now.

jude_36

Sybbie, these are high school kids, why would they drop out because of money to pay for school?

sybbie719

My bad, I did not see high school at the top so I answered as it related to college students. As I also stated it would be nice to know the reasons and factors contributing to the high drop out rate.

vballmom

Sorry that the link to the Mercury News isn't working.

The reason for the dropout rate isn't clear, although there are many factors. Here's from the SF Chronicle:

In the Vallejo City Unified School District, which has the Bay Area's highest dropout rate at 42 percent, officials last week announced steps to address what they see as a leading cause of dropouts: students who fail in middle school being promoted to high school.

"So when they get to our high schools, they just hit a brick wall and begin to drop out," said Jason Hodge, the district's spokesman. "We have kids in ninth or 10th grade working at a sixth-grade level."

Dropout data sound alarm, educators say

barrons

I SERIOUSLY doubt that statewide the dropouts are often gifted kids.

Youdon'tsay

jude, I can answer that question.

My Hispanic mom dropped out of school after eighth grade because she continued to fall further behind academically as she came from a family of migrant workers and could not return to school until October. So, yes, there are financial reasons why a child would need to drop out of school.

jude_36

youdon'tsay, I understand that, but I was addressing Sybbies comment, which was due to a misunderstanding of the OP.

I think a lot of kids drop out because they fall too far behind. I have a brother who left school because he struggled with reading... they kept passing him to the next grade until his Junior year. Junior year his teacher told him he was going to fail unless he did XYZ. So he did XYZ and the teacher failed him anyway. He never went back. And while that is anecdotal evidence, I think it's pretty common for kids to keep getting passed along to the next grade until they just can't get passed along anymore, and then it's too late for them to get back on track.

jude_36

BTW, I plugged the first sentence of the original post into Yahoo, and the second link that popped up was to the relevant article. But it didn't say anything about the cause of the high dropout rates.

Youdon'tsay

jude, my son and I were discussing social promotion just the other day.

He is working as a TA this summer at a Title I school summer camp and is amazed that these kids can't add on grade level. I mentioned to him that these kids track to a high school that was closed last month by the state due to chronic academic failure. We talked about how the HS was being held responsible for the academic shortcoming of its students when, in reality, those problems first surfaced -- and were never addressed -- way before they walked through the HS's doors. Such a shame.

I think he's feeling an increased commitment to helping these kids on an ongoing basis. Some kids are just dealt a worse hand than others. The good news is that thanks in part to an ongoing effort between my son's school and this elementary -- kind of a little buddy collaboration -- these kids are starting to get it, and their test scores are improving. The teachers I met last night at the open house for parents were dedicated educators. I have a lot of hope for this campus!!

MQD

They determined that the drop outs in the Sequoia Unified district were strongly related to boredom. The hs was not considered rigorous with many outside influences.. These "gifted" were not properly prepared, did not have the support to stay in school and were primarily from a minority population. My info is from the person in charge of the gifted school they started to address the issue.

MQD

... so the middle school prep seems to very important along with catching learning issues. If a child can not read to grade level at a certain point, this should be red flagged and the parents/district need to investigate.

When I say "gifted", I do not mean kids who take test well but kids with an innate intelligence and ability to contribute back. It is a shame kids get left in the dust because no one is paying attention and they just get moved along.

Well known that if you look at our prison population, you have the gifted who are "too smart for their own good" and the not very intelligent crowd ... both ends of the spectrum.

momof2inca

As a middle school teacher for the past 8 years (soon to be high school teacher this year), I can agree that it is the social promotion that contributes greatly to the later drop-out rate. At our school of 1,400 6-8 graders NOBODY is ever held back. A third of the students "earn" F's in one or more core classes (English, math, history) and they are still allowed to go to the next grade, accept a certificate on stage at the 8th grade celebration, and basically pretend that everything is on track. They hit 9th grade and the F's have teeth. They don't get credits, slip far behind even with summer school and finally, with little to no real support at home, they drop out (often trying one or two levels of independent study/continuation programs before giving up). We middle school teachers have complained passionately about this for years and years but apparently there is enough evidence backed by research that shows retaining kids doesn't work either, and they often drop out even sooner.

So I don't know what the answer is. The kids I see in our district (which has an 11% dropout rate according to the new figures) who I believe will later drop out are often capable of learning but have given up. I see them in 6th grade, behind academically but still trying, and by 8th grade I have heard that they will sit in a chair and do nothing. Literally nothing but stare at a desk or a piece of paper (this happens in other teachers' rooms because I won't allow them to do this). The assignment might be to reflect in writing on what would happen without one of the articles of the First Amendment, and they COULD write some kind of response because they've spent 10 days learning about the First Amendment through activities, film, books, skits, whatever... but they don't want to make the effort to think or, more likely, to produce. And there is no immediate consequence for the F... life goes on. Until the next year, when it doesn't.

It's very disheartening.

Youdon'tsay

I wish I had answers, too.

As I wrote before, we've been talking about this a lot because of ds's summer job. He's picked up on the kids' unwillingness to write. The kids were really reluctant to journal at all. He coaxed them into giving him a verbal response to the prompt, so then he'd say, "Good! Write it down." But they admitted they were worried about misspellings, etc. He told them that this exercise wasn't all about perfect spelling and grammar at this point but about just getting their thoughts on paper. I really feel for these kids. I met many of the parents last night, and they all seemed very well-meaning (though language was an issue for many of them).