Panel says dropout rates are at crisis levels

MATT NEVALA

June 19, 2008 at 3:37PM AKST

High school educators from Alaska and five other Northwest states attended a one-day conference in Seattle late last month and were told dropout rates for minority students, especially Native Americans and Alaska Natives, sit at crisis levels.

“I would rate any kid dropping out as a crisis,” Lower Kuskokwim School District Superintendent Bill Ferguson said.

The most recent statistics from the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development were tabulated for the 2006-07 school year. State officials said numbers for the just-ended 2007-08 year will be recorded this summer.

In 2006-07, LKSD reported a 9.6 percent dropout rate in grades seven to 12, or 149 dropouts among the 1,560 enrolled in those grades as of Oct. 1, 2006. The district reported a 9.2 percent dropout rate in the two previous years, 2004-05 and 2005-06.

“It’s always been a concern, but the level of concern is something that has come to light more since No Child Left Behind came around,” Ferguson said.

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is the main federal law affecting education from kindergarten through high school.  It was signed into law in January 2002 and is built on four principles: accountability for results, more choices for parents, greater local control and flexibility, and an emphasis on doing what works based on scientific research. Federal funding for schools is based on meeting various academic and statistical standards of No Child Left Behind.

At the University of Washington conference, a panel of experts told educators from Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming that after years of talking about how students need to be properly prepared for school, it’s time for schools to start preparing for students.

Sally Brownfield, the facilitator for the Center for the Improvement of Student Learning in Washington, said that’s when Native American children first come in contact with “foreign” cultures.

The panelists, made up in part of representatives of the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, advocated resources be redirected to help troubled students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The “Civil Rights Project” conference, a national effort by UCLA, catered to educators serving Native American and Alaska Native students in the six states.

Some districts err on this side of optimism, failing to report missing students as dropouts.

“The statistics school districts turn in aren’t checked,” said Gary Orfield, co-director of UCLA’s Civil Rights Project.

Poverty seems to directly correlate to graduation rates, according to data presented at the conference. High schools serving low-income areas have much lower “promoting power.”

A Johns Hopkins University report presented at the conference identified four common reasons students drop out:

• Life events such as pregnancies, arrests or a pressing need for a full-time income.

• Frustration or boredom with curriculum that leads them to lose sight of the “reason for coming to school.”

• Subtle discouragement from teachers or school administrators who label a student “difficult, dangerous of detrimental to the success of the school.”

• Repeated failure, which can wear students down.

Ferguson, who is retiring from LKSD at month’s end, said district officials have made a concerted effort to locate troubled students who might have dropped out.

“We’ve pulled some back into school,” he said.

Ferguson believes some youth would be more inclined to stay in school if more emphasis was put on vocational training and jobs. Many of the vocational programs have been gutted financially over the last several years.

“When in trade programs, kids understand the connection that something they’re doing in the ninth grade can progress to help them become a registered nurse or an X-ray technician,” Ferguson said. “Right now, that connection isn’t there.”

But Ferguson did applaud No Child Left Behind for bringing more attention to dropout rates and ways to tackle the problem.

“A lot of dropouts had been kind of swept under the rug and not been an issue,” he said. “Now, districts are required to report the rates, and we’re finding out where kids are individually. It is very positive when we all recognize that kids need to be in school.”

Matt Nevala can be reached at (907) 348-2480 or toll free at (800) 770-9830, ext. 480. The Associated Press contributed to this report.