Dropout Rate for L.A. School District Fell 13% in 1996

The rate at which students drop out of the Los Angeles Unified School District fell about 13% in 1996, marking the first significant improvement in three years, according to new figures to be released by the state today.

The district’s one-year dropout rate is still more than twice the statewide average, and about four in 10 of the district’s ninth-graders can be expected to eventually leave school without graduating.

“You will not hear that we feel good about it yet,” said Assistant Supt. Sally Coughlin. “We’re still losing far too many kids . . . and we’re not resting on our laurels.”

The district estimates its one-year dropout rate at 9.3%, down from 10.7% the previous year. The figure reported by the state Department of Education

for Los Angeles Unified was slightly lower than that, but district officials said it was inaccurate because it did not include all schools.

Other Los Angeles County districts reporting significant improvement included Pasadena, Bassett, Bonita, El Rancho, Paramount and Rowland. The countywide rate for Los Angeles, Ventura and Riverside counties improved, while San Bernardino County’s dropout rate went up and Orange County’s held steady.

The statewide rate went from 4.5% to 3.9%, continuing a decade-long positive trend that has reduced the percentage of students who drop out by half. Even so, more than 58,000 California students leave each year without a diploma, which the Educational Testing Service estimates can cut their lifetime earning potential by an average of $200,000.

The one-year rate covers the 1.5 million California students in grades nine through 12. Dropout rates also are frequently projected over four years, to show the likelihood of ninth-graders dropping out before graduation four years later.

Statewide, the rate was 6.6% for African American students and 5/6% for Latino students. For white students, the rate was 2.4% and for Asian Americans it was 2%.

“We can be proud of the gains we have made,” said state Supt. of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin. “At the same time, we still need to do more . . . particularly when you realize that the one-year rate carried out over four years means that one out of six freshmen will not graduate from high school with his or her class.”

Education experts say dropping out generally is related to poverty, to families that move frequently, to poor academic performance and to the lack of a strong bond with a caring adult--whether it’s a parent, a teacher or someone else. Students seem to respond well to high expectations and to opportunities to get involved in sports or other activities.

Therefore, many schools are trying to foster relationships between individual students and teachers.

“It’s that human connection we all look for,” said Mary Weaver, an administrator in the state Department of Education’s safe schools program. “If you’re just a number, you don’t feel connected.”

The state also is promoting a wide range of programs tailored to pregnant teenagers, newly arrived immigrants, students who have gotten in trouble with the law and other groups. “If we didn’t have strategies directed toward them, those populations would have incredibly high rates of failure and dropouts,” said Gabe Cortina, the state deputy superintendent for specialized programs.

Another leading cause of dropping out is a lack of academic skill, which causes students to flunk required classes--and eventually give up.

That’s where officials in Long Beach hope to make a difference.

The improved dropout picture in Los Angeles Unified and Paramount left Long Beach with the highest rate in Los Angeles County, although it was down from 11.1% to 10.2%.

Next fall, the 400 eighth-graders in the district who failed two or more subjects this year will be required to enroll at a new school where they will brush up on basic skills, work on their study habits and be assigned a mentor before being allowed to enroll in high school courses.

“The stage [for dropping out] may be set in middle school,” said district spokesman Richard Van Der Laan.

Within Los Angeles Unified, the dropout rate varied widely. The rate at Crenshaw High School, 24%, was the highest among the district’s 50 schools with traditional ninth- through 12th-grade student bodies. Three of those schools--Reseda, Taft and Garfield--reported dropout rates lower than the statewide average.

Coughlin said the Los Angeles district has worked hard to improve daily attendance, provide counseling for students with problems and, perhaps most significantly, follow up on students who stop coming to school.

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Dropout Rates

Dropouts are students in the age groups for grades 9 through 12 who are no longer attending school and have not received a diploma or enrolled elsewhere. Here are percentages for Los Angeles County school districts, calculated by dividing the number of dropouts by total enrollment in those grades

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94-95 95-96 ABC 2.7 1.9 Acton-Agua Dulce .0 .0 Alhambra City High 2.4 2.6 Antelope Valley 1.6 1.1 Arcadia .5 .3 Azusa 1.8 1.7 Baldwin Park 3.0 3.7 Bassett 5.2 3.1 Bellflower .9 .8 Beverly Hills .3 .1 Bonita 4.9 2.8 Burbank 3.1 2.3 Centinela Valley 8.0 7.0 Charter Oak .6 .4 Claremont 3.6 2.2 Compton 4.7 8.7 Covina Valley 2.4 1.0 Culver City 4.1 2.7 Downey 2.3 1.3 Duarte 3.8 2.4 El Monte 2.2 2.9 El Rancho 4.4 2.0 El Segundo 1.9 .9 Glendale .9 .4 Glendora 1.4 1.3 Hacienda La Puente 2.6 2.8 Inglewood 6.0 4.7 La Canada .2 .1 Las Virgenes .4 .3 Long Beach 11.1 10.2 Los Angeles 10.7 9.3 Lynwood 5.9 4.6 Manhattan Beach .2 .2 Monrovia 2.6 3.3 Montebello 5.5 3.4 Norwalk-La Mirada 2.9 3.7 Palos Verdes .4 .4 Paramount 11.1 7.7 Pasadena 6.6 4.6 Pomona 4.8 4.9 Redondo Beach 2.6 .7 Rowland 4.9 2.9 San Gabriel .0 .7 San Marino .3 .0 Sta. Monica-Malibu 2.3 1.5 South Bay Union * * South Pasadena 1.1 1.6 Temple City 1.4 .6 Torrance .7 .4 Walnut Valley .5 .9 West Covina 2.4 2.3 Whittier Union 3.3 2.6 William S. Hart 2.8 1.8 L.A. County Total 6.6 5.4 Statewide Total 4.4 3.9

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*Data unavailable for new or reorganized districts.

Sources: State Department of Education, Los Angeles Unified School District

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School Dropouts

Here is the annual percentage of dropouts since 1991-92 in Los Angeles Unified schools:

95-96: 9.3

Source: Los Angeles Unified School District