Riverside County Office of Education
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Riverside, California 92501 | Map
(951) 826-6530
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Indio, California 92201 | Map
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Newsroom
Riverside County dropout rate improving
Riverside County’s schools registered a marked improvement in dropout rates, and held their own in rankings of graduation rates, according to data released August 11 by the California Department of Education.
"We are doing everything possible to help our students attain a good standard of living as an adult,” said Riverside County Superintendent of Schools Kenneth M. Young. “The recent results of our county’s student dropout data demonstrate our commitment to this priority. I encourage people to keep watching these results as we continue to improve our ability to deliver on this commitment.”
The new data also underscored a continuing “achievement gap”, with the numbers breaking along ethnic and economic lines. And they revealed a gender gap in Riverside County: Females are more likely to graduate and less likely to drop out than males.
State officials cautioned that the fresh data, for the 2009-10 academic year, represent a new and more accurate method of calculating both graduation and dropout rates, so the actual percentages can’t be compared accurately to the numbers of previous years.
Riverside County’s new graduation rate is 76.3 percent. That registers results for the student group, called a cohort, which entered high school as the Class of 2010. The number marks a slight downward adjustment in the county’s percentage. Most counties saw their grad rates fall similarly under the new system. However, in ranking among the 16 largest counties, Riverside County was unchanged, scoring the sixth-highest graduation rate on the list. Riverside County’s new cohort dropout rate is 16.7 percent, sixth-lowest on the list. That represents a significant gain of two positions over last year.
“For a long time in our nation’s history, high school dropouts could find a job somewhere in the workforce and make a living,” said Young. “Those days have all but disappeared. Today, a high school diploma is the bare minimum skill set need for life above poverty.
“Beginning in kindergarten and continuing through 12th grade, Riverside County’s public schools have made it a top priority that all students will graduate from high school. We assert that as a moral imperative,” he added. “As we focus on increasing high school graduation rates, dropout rates will naturally decrease.”
When reviewed by subgroup countywide, the graduation and dropout rate data highlight the achievement gap. The graduation rate is 82.6 percent for white students; 72.4 percent for Hispanic students; 69 percent for African-American students; 71.6 percent for Socioeconomically Disadvantaged students; 61.5 percent for English learners, and 59.8 percent for Special Education students.
In a similar pattern, the dropout rate is 12.1 percent for white students; 19.6 percent for Hispanic students; 21.9 percent for African-American students; 19.5 percent for Socioeconomically Disadvantaged students; 27.1 percent for English learners and 21.0 percent for Special Education students.
In Riverside County, the data showed a 71.9 graduation rate for males, but an 81 percent grad rate for females. Likewise, the dropout rate for males was 19.8 percent, compared to 13.6 percent for females.
Riverside County’s top districts for cohort graduation rate are Temecula Valley USD (90.5 percent), Lake Elsinore USD (87.7 percent), Corona-Norco USD (86.8 percent), Murrieta Valley USD (85.6 percent) and Desert Sands USD (84.2 percent). The five districts with the lowest dropout rates: Temecula Valley USD (5.3 percent), Corona-Norco USD (7.4 percent), Lake Elsinore USD (7.9 percent), Palm Springs USD (11.3 percent) and Desert Sands USD (11.6 percent).
The county’s top comprehensive high schools in cohort graduation rate: Great Oak, TVUSD (97.3 percent); Chaparral, TVUSD (95.5 percent); and Santiago, CNUSD (94.4 percent).
The comprehensive high schools with lowest dropout rates in the county: Great Oak (1.6 percent); Chaparral (2.5 percent); and Martin Luther King, Riverside USD, (2.6 percent).
Also scoring distinguished results were two non-comprehensive schools. John F. Kennedy, a three-year alternative high school in the Corona-Norco Unified district, scored a 96.8 percent cohort graduation rate, and a dropout rate of just 0.9 percent. Nuview Bridge Early College High, a charter school under the Nuview Union School District, registered a graduation rate of 95.5 percent, and a dropout rate of 3.0 percent.
For information contact: Rick Peoples,
Public Information Officer
Telephone: (951) 826-6642
Fax: (951) 826-6199 rpeoples@rcoe.us
