The Collin County Observer

One Dropout Factory in Collin County

10/31/07

08:33:08 pm, by bill

, 252 words,

Categories: Observer Opinions, Poverty, Education

One Dropout Factory in Collin County

The Associated Press and Johns Hopkins have published a report that labels 12% of American schools as "dropout factories". They describe a dropout factory as a "a high school where no more than 60 percent of the students who start as freshmen make it to their senior year."

Texas ranked 9th highest in the country, with almost 18% of high schools failing to graduate more than 60%. While many of the 179 failing Texas schools were in the Houston or Dallas ISDs, one is in Collin County.

According to the AP study, McKinney North High School only graduated 51% of its incoming freshmen.

"If you're born in a neighborhood or town where the only high school is one where graduation is not the norm, how is this living in the land of equal opportunity?" asks Bob Balfanz, the researcher at Johns Hopkins University who defines such a school as a "dropout factory."

The AP reports: "There are about 1,700 regular or vocational high schools nationwide that fit that description, according to an analysis of Education Department data conducted by Johns Hopkins for The Associated Press. That's 12 percent of all such schools, no more than a decade ago but no less, either.

While some of the missing students transferred, most dropped out, Balfanz says. The data tracked senior classes for three years in a row to make sure local events like plant closures weren't to blame for the low retention rates."

Link to AP article is here
An interactive national map with a list of Texas schools is here

Bill

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Comments, Pingbacks:

Comment from: Codu Cunningham [Visitor]

· http://www.mckinneyisd.net

The methodology is a joke. That should be the headline. Makes for good headlines but this is simply not accurate. We reviewed the methodology. They looked at enrollment in 2000-01, 2001-02, and 2002-2003 and compared it to the graduation numbers in 2004, 2005, and 2006. They refer to it as "promoting power" which is the school's ability to have a student from their 9th grade year through senior year. In other words, they look at the enrollment in 12th grade and divide by the number of students in 9th grade four years earlier. They state that to be eligible to be considered a "dropout factory" the senior class must be "made up of 60 percent or fewer of the kids who entered as freshman." No consideration is given to transfers (i.e. REZONING), students that move to other schools, students that graduate early, students that take online courses and graduate early, etc.

Now, let's think about how all of these could impact McKinney North High School since it was newly opened in 2000. McKinney North High School housed 9th graders from McKinney North High School AND McKinney High School in 2000-2001, or a total of 820 students. In 2002-2003 the number of 10th graders was 283. Did 537 9th graders drop out? Of course not, they returned to McKinney High School, their home campus. The methodology used in this study divides the number of students graduating four years later. Of course the number is going to be way off, that's because they were assuming all of these students should have stayed at MNHS. Absolutely ridiculous. They didn't ask though, they used raw numbers so they wouldn't have known. In addition, they don't factor students that may have moved, been rezoned, graduated early, etc.

Our dropout rates in grades 9-12, as reported by the Texas Education Agency:

2004 1.6%
2005 1.6%

The truth is that their study is testing student mobility, not dropouts, and they didn't even get that right. Thanks for the opportunity to set the record straight.

Cody Cunningham
Asst. to the Superintendent for Communications
McKinney ISD

Permalink 11/01/07 @ 16:21

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The Collin County Observer

One Dropout Factory in Collin County

10/31/07

One Dropout Factory in Collin County

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