Friday, June 27, 2008

last updated: March 09, 2008 04:09:57 AM

Americans react quickly to reports of a missing child. All points bulletins, Amber alerts and TV and radio news bulletins -- the word gets out.

This massive response is natural and appropriate; after all, we want the best for our children.

So here's a startling figure: From 2002 to 2006, about 40,000 teens went missing in California -- not from their homes but from their classrooms.

The school systems that are designed to educate them couldn't account for them. These kids didn't graduate from high school but they also didn't get recorded as dropouts. They simply disappeared.

Many of them will show up later -- in lines for food stamps, in prison, maybe even on the streets. These are the places people without a high school diploma often end up.

The dropout problem has been so serious for so long that people don't see it as the crisis it is. In recent weeks, public schools have been in the news because of likely budget cuts and because 97 school districts around the state face sanctions for not meeting the test targets of the No Child Left Behind Act.

These are important developments, but they overshadowed two significant reports from the California Dropout Research Project that arguably have a greater long-term impact on the state's economy.

First, the project released dropout statistics by school and district. Three Modesto schools -- Elliott Alternative Education Center, Modesto High School and Grace Davis High School -- showed the highest number of dropouts in our region, but more significant is the dropout rate. And in this category, the local statistics mirrored those of the state: The highest percentages are at the alternative and charter schools.

One explanation for this is that the alternative schools enroll students who are struggling. But there's not sufficient focus on the fact that the specific efforts to prevent and reduce dropouts aren't working. Why not?

The second report contained 15 recommendations for improving the dropout problem. Among the key points:

Better accountability. The Academic Performance Index, the gauge for measuring success, is based entirely on test scores. Graduation and dropout rates have to be part of the measurement.

Better tracking of students. Thousands are unaccounted for. Some districts don't report accurately. Any school district that reports zero dropouts over four years is immediately suspect.

More attention early on. Students who are struggling in elementary school likely won't do well in junior high. They're dropouts in the making.

Identify working programs. The state needs to create "lighthouse districts" and replicate them. On the other end, high schools that aren't producing enough graduates should be closed.

Local educators are fully aware of the dropout problem -- though somewhat defensive about the magnitude. But we know of many examples that follow the recommendations:

Mobilize community support. That's happening in Stanislaus County with the Every Day Counts campaign encouraging better attendance. Businesses, organizations and individuals are providing prizes to promote good attendance.

Create small learning communities. Johansen High School will move in this direction next year with five learning communities of 300 to 400 students each.

Connect school to the real world. Turlock High School provides this with its career tech programs.

Re-examine high school graduation requirements, so the emphasis is not only on academics but also on skills such as punctuality and working with others. This has been an emphasis in Ceres.

The California Dropout Project suggests actions by the state, by districts and by individual schools. It also notes that the answer is not simply in spending more money, although that is part of the solution. Its recommendations cannot and should not be ignored simply because money is tight.

Fewer than three quarters of California's students are graduating from high school, and in some areas, such as Los Angeles, the graduation rate is below 50 percent.

That's shamefully unacceptable: California is simply losing too many of its children, and we must find a way to reverse that trend.

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