RIVERSIDE –The California Department of Education today (July 16, 2008) launched a new system to more accurately track dropout data using a student-level identification process that allows schools and districts to follow students who leave their schools.

“This new information being released today on student dropouts presents a challenge to all of us as educators, but it also provides an opportunity for us to use this new data to find these students and provide the resources they need to complete their high school educations,” said Kenneth M. Young, Riverside County Superintendent of Schools.

Young announced that the Riverside County Office of Education (RCOE) is launching a new initiative this month through its Regional Learning Centers focused on bringing dropouts back to school.

“We will use the student tracking data that is part of this new drop out report to locate students who have left their home district and have not been reported enrolled in a new district,” he said. “We will then make available programs for them with custom educational strategies that have been successful in helping students obtain a high school diploma or GED.”

RCOE has Regional Learning Centers in Riverside, Val Verde, Banning and San Jacinto, and plans for new centers in Moreno Valley, Murrieta and Jurupa. The Centers house a variety of educational programs, including Community Schools, Alternative Education, and Special Education.

Young said there are warning signs for students who dropout as early as first grade, so there will be a new focus on preschool programs. Poor attendance is just one sign, with students averaging 124 missed days of school before they dropout. By the time some of these students reach middle school, they are already on a path that will lead them to becoming dropouts, he said. By high school, many of them have fallen so far behind that they give up and quit school.

The state’s new system, the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System or CALPADS, tracks the state’s student population of 6.2 million who are enrolled in public schools. Students in grades from kindergarten to 12th grade are assigned a statewide student identifier (SSID) that is unique but non-personally identifiable.

Under the new system, the one-year dropout rate for the 2006-07 academic year for Riverside County was 6.1 percent, below the state average of 6.4 percent. The four-year derived dropout rate for the county was 23.7 percent, below the statewide average of 24.2 percent.

In the last reported cycle of dropout data for the county without the new student-identifier system, the one-year dropout rate for Riverside County was 3.8 percent. The four-year derived rate was 15.8 percent. Both figures were below the statewide average.

State officials, however, have warned against comparing the new dropout numbers with past statistics because they were calculated by different methods.

The new system gives exact information about why a student withdraws from school. Each student withdrawing from a school is assigned one of 28 “withdrawal codes,” indicating, for example, whether that student graduated, dropped out, withdrew, left the state or country, or completed his or her education in other ways.

Young said RCOE is working with local school districts on a variety of programs to combat the dropout rates, including programs like Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID), Career Technical Education, and preschool programs like Head Start. He said the support of parents through PTA and PTSA groups was vital.

“This is important work because we know that when students leave school early, it will affect almost every area of their future lives,” Young said.

Read state press release on dropout report

For information contact:
Rick Peoples, Public Information Officer
Telephone: (951) 826-6642
Fax: (951) 826-6199
rpeoples@rcoe.us