Sean C. Morgan
Sweet Home High School’s four-year graduation rate slipped slightly in 2016-17, by less than a percentage point; but school officials see some bright spots in the underlying statistics.
In 2016-17, the four-year graduation rate was 70.88 percent, down .81 percent from 71.69 percent in 2015-16. The state four-year graduation rate was 76.65 percent, up from 74.83 percent in 2015-16.
The four-year graduation rate primarily includes students who were freshmen in 2013-14.
“I’m never satisfied with where we are,” said Principal Ralph Brown. “We always want improvement for our kids.”
The district faces numerous challenges, from high poverty, homeless and special education rates, but “the bottom line is how do we serve them,” he said.
The district’s “completer rate was 79.12 percent in 2016-17, an increase from 2015-16 when it was 76.71 percent. The state’s completer rate was 80.18 percent.
The “completer” rate adds to the graduation rate students who finish school under other circumstances, with an adult diploma, an extended diploma or a GED. In Sweet Home, 14 students earned a GED, and one earned an extended diploma.
“We captured some of those kids through that pathway,” said Supt. Tom Yahraes, and the improvement in the completer rate is a highlight.
High School staff focused on getting more students through the GED program instead of dropping out last year, Brown said. He is looking forward to seeing what happens with it this year with a different person running the program this year.
The dropout rate for 2016-17 was 5.71 percent, 41 students out of 209, an increase from 3.77 percent, 30 students, in 2015-16. The year prior it was 6.34 percent, 51 students.
Brown wants to hire a high school re-engagement specialist, a tracker, to help push down the dropout numbers, he said. Specifically, he is looking at the 10-day dropouts, those who are dropped from the rolls and considered dropouts after missing 10 days of school.
“I’m worried about next year,” Brown said. “Right now, we don’t have a great system of capturing those kids back.”
He wants an “alarm” system in place that notifies the staff when a student has missed four or five days. The tracker will reach out to the student and parents to find out what’s going on and to help address whatever is holding the student back from attending school.
“Sometimes, if you bother them enough,” they’ll come back, Brown said, and he would like to “be that positive bother to get them to school.”
Brown wants to dedicate some staffing to track data for a variety of purposes, he said, “but specifically looking at freshmen-on-track, chronic absentee and D and F rates and trends.”
Yahraes, in his second year in the district, and Brown, in his third year in the district, are both happy to see increases in the number of graduates increase among career and technical education students and special education students.
“In the cohort, I see a big jump in CTE concentrates,” Yahraes said. “That means these are high school students who are two, three or more programs of study that are CTE.”
Of those 55 students, 92.59 percent graduate, up from 89.39 percent in 2015-16.
That’s nearly as good as students identified as “talented and gifted,” who graduated 95 percent and had a 100-percent completer rate in 2016-17, Brown said.
Of CTE participants, those who took one CTE class, 110 students, 77.88 percent graduated. That was down from 80 percent in 2015-16, but the 2016-17 school year had a completer rate of 86.54 percent, with eight completing a GED and one an extended diploma.
SHHS made improvements in special education, with 48.48 percent of students graduating and a 57.58-percent completer rate. In 2015-16, just 42.5 percent of students with disabilities graduated.
The five-year graduation rate is good news too, Brown said. It was 75 percent in 2016-17, up from 72.73 in 2015-16.
“We’re able to keep our fifth-year seniors and encourage them to finish,” Brown said.
“We are offering to and we are committed to our collective mindset and belief that all means all,” Yahraes said. “We want all kids to achieve their potential. We’re sticking to our beliefs and sticking to our current systems and enhancing those systems – and we need to be relentless.”
Successful organizations that improve implement systems, reflect on them and then refine them, Yahraes said. Sometimes organizations try something and then switch it up, particularly in education.
“We’re going to stick to our systems and enhance them,” Yahraes said, but it won’t come with an immediate across-the-board bump in performance. He expects to see improvements over the coming years based on the refinements the district has been making.
Much of it started last year, but much of the effort is materializing in classrooms this year.
The district went back to a five-day school week this year, showing a “stronger commitment to our instruction,” Yahraes said. Specifically, the high school has implemented a variety of new programs this year.
“I told the boss, I’m trying to figure out what things are working,” Brown said, and the school has some plans it is trying to improve the bottom line results.
The new employability score not only creates an incentive but also an explanation to students about why being on time, for example, is important, Yahraes said. Students can submit the score to potential employers, who can in turn use the score to help evaluate whether an applicant will be a good employee, who shows up on time and does the work.
“I think the kids maybe didn’t get it in the beginning,” Brown said. “Our students recently received their first trimester scores, and that started quite a bit of talk. We are quite hopeful to build on our initial efforts.”
The district has invested in things to keep students in school, Yahraes said. That shows in the CTE classes. This year, the school added a forestry class and a fish and wildlife class as part of a natural resources program. The fish and wildlife class can be taken for college credit.
The district was unable to hire a full-time teacher for the program this year, but it is currently seeking applicants for the program for next school year, Brown said.
The program will use Measure 98 funds from the state to pay for the program.
The successful CTE trend is something officials have noticed, Yahraes said. “We’ll fuel that success and we’ll continue to develop those programs of study.”
Brown wants to expand the school’s offerings, adding drafting to the metals program and next year a combination entrepreneur-introduction to engineering and technology class to attract even more students to CTE, noting that even among those who take just one CTE class improves chances of graduating.
SHHS teachers added a Homework Hub this trimester two days a week so students can get help on their homework from teachers. It is funded by Measure 98.
When it started, six or seven students were in the classroom, Brown said. Now it’s running full. Teachers rotate their time, with two available during each session.
A new freshman focus class was started, Brown said. Veteran math teacher Steve Thorpe is teaching the class.
The class is designed to help freshmen who had difficulty in junior high to get on and stay on track. Graduation requires four language arts credits, for example.
“Your freshman year, if you fail your math and English courses, you’re not on track,” Yahraes said. “Now you’re having to double up.”
“It’s worked out really well,” Brown said of the class, and the students are doing better overall.
Just having that extra set of eyes on the students is helpful, Brown said. He’s coach, and he’s not afraid to reach out to parents.
At the end of the trimester, school staff will find out how it impacted grades, Brown said.
Staff is in the early stages of an idea for a summer academy to help those incoming freshmen, he said. Through the program, they could develop skills they missed and earn high school elective credit.
The high school culture has been changing since last year, Yahraes said. The High School staff have taken an active role to improve it with a strong push to improve teacher retention and cut turnover.
“My first year here, we lost 11 staff,” Brown said. Many of them were decent teachers, but many left because they wanted to be somewhere else for different reasons. “People have shared with me that a high yearly turnover was the rule, not the exception.”
The district went to a job fair to pitch Sweet Home to potential teachers last year.
The teachers set up their own project to welcome new teachers to the district too. That included a tour of the district, lunch at the lake and a welcome basket. Brown hosted a barbecue for everyone at his house at the beginning of the school year to help staff feel welcomed.
The teachers, who run their own school improvement committee, developed tardy sweeps, which went into effect at the beginning of the school year; and it’s working, Brown said. The number of tardy students has decreased dramatically. Even the students who are caught the most are tardy less.
“Everybody kind of got on board,” Brown said. “Staff presence in the hallways stops a lot of problems.”
The staff has worked hard with student leadership on pep assemblies, dances and student recognition “to make High School an inviting place where kids and families want to be. I’m proud of our High School’s efforts.”
“The big thing is, for me, I’m not happy where we’re at, of course,” Brown said. “We’ve got work to do. We have some really good things we’ve put in place, but I want the results now.”