Sean C. Morgan
Sweet Home High School single-year and four-year dropout rates decreased last school year, according to an Oregon Department of Education report released on April 26.
The dropout rate for seniors in 2008-09 was 4.4 percent, graduating 125, while in 2009-10, the rate was 1.3 percent, graduating 145.
The four-year graduation rate for the Class of 2009 was 60.68. The class started high school in the 2005-06 school year. The Class of 2010 graduated 73.82 percent of its members, who started high school in the 2006-07 school year.
The statewide dropout rate remained unchanged at 3.4 percent from 2008-09 to 2009-10, while the four-year graduation rate was 66.4 percent in 2010, up from 66.2 percent in 2009.
The four-year figures are adjusted for students who transferred into the Oregon public school system, transferred out to public or home schools, left the state or country or died.
Graduation and dropout rates are not inversely correlated. Dropout rates do not include students who are deceased; are enrolled in an alternative school or hospital education program; are enrolled in a juvenile detention facility; are enrolled in a foreign exchange program; are temporarily absent because of suspension, a family emergency, or severe health problems that prevent attendance at school; received a GED certificate; or received an adult high school diploma from a community college.
“We were very pleased when the numbers came out,” said SHHS Principal Pat Stineff.
Stineff credits the staff and students for the success, “I would say changes the staff has made and the hard work of the students,” she said.
The staff is developing “Professional Learning Communities,” in which faculty members collect and share data about local education and then collaborate on implementing those ideas that are known to work based on the data.
While the PLCs started this school year, they were under heavy discussion last school year.
The PLC concept is helping change the teachers’ mindsets, Stineff said. In grade school, teachers think about the grade they teach, the fourth grade or the fifth grade, for example. In high school, teachers are oriented around the subject they teach.
PLCs encourage them to think about the students rather than simply the subject matter, Stineff said, and that’s quite different. The idea of teaching the subject has been ingrained in teachers for as long as any of them have been teaching.
The school is giving students more workshops and more opportunities to make it, she said. “There was, and we got luck with a bunch of the kids we had – a good bunch of kids that stayed in school.”
To coincide with a declining dropout rate, the high school had half as many referrals in 2009-10 as it had the previous year, Stineff said, and that figure counts all students, not just seniors.
“This class was a good class,” Stineff said. “They did a good job. We’re going to do our very best to continue that success.”
She is a little concerned about new graduation requirements in place starting next school year when this year’s juniors will have to pass a state reading test to graduate, she said. This year’s sophomores will take a reading and writing test, and freshmen will have to pass reading, writing and math tests.
Alternatives to passing the test are allowed, including proof of proficiency based on work samples or by taking tests, such as the SAT.
“One-third of Oregon high school seniors did not graduate on time last year,” said State Superintendent Susan Castillo.
“These rates are even more alarming for our poor and minority students. We are asking more of our students, raising the bar to ensure they are prepared for college and career, but we also need to do more to support our struggling learners. That is the only way we will see real change in our graduation rates. And we must see change. We simply can’t afford for one third of our seniors to be unprepared for their futures.
“Our state’s economic health, now more than ever, depends on ensuring more high school students graduate prepared for college and careers. I am encouraged that Gov. Kitzhaber has focused on education reform as a key strategy for economic growth.
“We know that the path to graduation starts in a child’s early years and targeted early childhood investments for our disadvantaged students are critical to closing the achievement gap and increasing our high school and college graduation rates.”