Wednesday, April 07, 1999
Cincinnati Public Schools struggle to graduate freshmen
Reforms try to reverse trend
BY DANA DiFILIPPO
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Nearly two-thirds of 4,149 ninth-graders who started in Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS) in 1994-95 didn't graduate from district schools last year.
Many dropped out, some were held back, and others transferred to other schools or to alternative programs.
Administrators say reforms promise to reverse the trend. But critics see it as further evidence that voters shouldn't approve the tax increase CPS will seek in November.
“I wish they were as good at teaching kids as they are at selling themselves to the public,” said Ed Rothenberg, 64, of Hyde Park, who heads the anti-tax group Homeowners Against Larger Taxes. “This just confirms that this district is consistently bad.”
Annual dropout rates actually are falling. Thirteen percent of students in grades nine to 12 dropped out last year, com pared with 16.7 percent the year before. The Ohio Department of Education uses annual statistics to measure and report dropout figures.
But Mr. Rothenberg and others say a more telling indicator of a district's success with high schoolers is how many ninth-graders complete their education in the district, rather than dropping out or transferring.
Tom Brinkman Jr. of Mount Lookout, who heads Citizens Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes (COAST), said annual rates “intentionally mask bad results” because they don't indicate the cumulative impact of students leaving the school system.
“I am sick and tired of CPS dumbing down statistics for their benefit,” Mr. Brinkman said.
District officials say they are not playing games with statistics.
“There is so much confusion on this issue,” said CPS Superintendent Steven Adamowski. “If we're to make progress on this issue, we all have to use the same vocabulary: calculating it in annual increments.”
In CPS, 62.5 percent of ninth-graders in 1994-95 didn't graduate from district schools within four years. That's up from just over 50 percent about three years ago.
Mr. Adamowski said the district has adopted several reforms in recent months intended to retain students.
CPS leaders are hanging their highest hopes on the district's new student-based budgeting plan, by which money follows students as they enroll in or leave CPS schools. The plan, leaders hope, will create incentives for schools to keep stu dents and attract even more.
Early literacy also is key, Mr. Adamowski said.
A few years ago, administrators ended their controversial practice of social promotion, in which students progress to the next grade because of their age even if they're not academically prepared. With new academic standards in place, students must show proficiency before being promoted.
A new program officials aim to open at Bloom School in the West End this fall also could stop students from leaving the district. The “Back-on-Track” school would offer accelerated learning to overage middle-school students.
While the district forwards students' records when they transfer to other districts or private schools, it doesn't have a formal plan to persuade them to return. It also doesn't track what happens to dropouts.
School board President Lynwood Battle supports conducting “exit interviews” such as businesses do when they lose employees.
But Mr. Rothenberg such efforts may be too little, too late.
“This has been a longtime problem,” said Mr. Rothenberg, 64, a real estate broker and property owner whose five children attended CPS schools. “Throwing more money at the district hasn't helped them in the past. Why would it now?”
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