Friday, September 29, 2000
N.Ky. schools' dropout rate among lowest in state
By Andrea Tortora
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Northern Kentucky schools reported one of the lowest overall dropout rates in the state for the 1998-99 school year, according to data released by the Education Department Thursday.
At the same time, one of the region's high schools won't see financial rewards for high test scores because its dropout rate was too high.
Gallatin County High scored in the rewards category on the state's assessment test, but its dropout rate of 11 percent is above the 8 percent limit set by the state. Statewide, the dropout rate is 4.97 percent; in Northern Kentucky, the rate is 3.91 percent.
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OTHER FINDINGS
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• The retention rate — the rate of students being held back a grade — for Northern Kentucky for grades 4-12 during the 1998-99 school year was 3.66 compared to the state rate of 4.03.
Ninth-grade students are retained the most. Among high school freshmen, one in eight was held back during the period, compared with one in 10 the year before.
• The region's high school graduates are making successful transitions to adult life by either going on to college or going to work. Northern Kentucky scored a 95.95 out of 100 in this category, on par with the state average.
• Northern Kentucky's attendance rate was 94.48 percent, above the state average of 93.89 percent.
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Gallatin County High was one of seven schools in the state penalized for losing students.
Gallatin Superintendent Jim Palm said the news was “bittersweet.”
“The good thing is our students are achieving, but we have to address this dropout issue,” Mr. Palm said.
The district already plans to start a program to identify 100 middle school students with low self-esteem who could be at-risk of leaving school. Those students will be paired with an adult mentor.
Data released Thursday is part of “non-academic” indicators used by the Education Department to judge a school's overall performance.
The state looks at rates of dropouts, retention, attendance and transition to adult life.
Schools and parents should take a hard look at these numbers, said Lisa Gross, Education Department spokeswoman.
“If you've got a high dropout rate, or low attendance rate, that says something about your school,” Ms. Gross said. “You put all these numbers together and you get a real good picture of a school culture.”
Broken down for the first time by race and gender, the dropout data showed that statewide, boys leave school more often than girls. Blacks and Hispanics dropped out in greater numbers than whites.
According to the data, about one student in 20 quit high school in the state in 1998-99. The figures included students who did not report by Oct. 1, meaning they dropped out over the summer. When grades 7 and 8 were factored in, the dropout rate was 3.4 percent.
State dropout rates were 5.8 percent for high school males and 4.08 percent for females. The rate was 7.2 percent among Hispanics — 90 dropouts in a population of 969. For blacks, the rate was 6.5 percent, with 1,161 dropouts among 17,849 total students. For whites it was 4.83 percent, with 8,013 students dropping out from a total 166,002 white students in total.
School districts encourage principals and staffs to analyze these data and make changes — if needed — at their schools, said Diana Heidelberg, Campbell County Schools' curriculum and instruction director.
“All of this is something that's paramount in everyone's mind,” Ms. Heidelberg said. “Attendance is important because that's where your money comes from. On dropouts, we have to make certain efforts to get them back into school.”
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