More Snohomish County teenagers made it through high school within four years in the 2003-04 school year, but the county dropout rate didn’t budge.
Across the county, 2,110 teenagers in ninth through 12th grades dropped out during the year, which was little different from the 2002-03 school year, according to data released Thursday by the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.
The state reports graduation and dropout statistics, including one-year snapshots and a look at students who started high school together.
| For more informationClick here to see who’s dropping out and details about dropout and graduation rates by district. |
In Snohomish County, 67 percent of students who started as freshmen in 2000 graduated four years later, an on-time rate that was up from 64 percent for the class of 2003.
Statewide, 70 percent of students earned a diploma in four years, and 3,000 more stayed in school compared with a year earlier.
The Everett School District had the county’s worst dropout rate, with nearly 12 percent of students dropping out in 2003-04. That total of 671 students is about equal to the entire enrollment at Sultan High School.
“Everybody is focused on this problem,” said JoAnne Fabian, who has been charged with lowering the dropout rate in Everett schools.
Schools are under increasing pressure to raise their graduation rates. The federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires schools to graduate 85 percent of their students by 2014, and meet annual goals along the way.
Washington’s graduation goal for the class of 2004 was 66 percent. Four of Snohomish County’s 19 traditional high schools fell short: Cascade, Everett, Mountlake Terrace and Sultan.
But for the first time this year, the state also reported an “extended” graduation rate, reflecting all students who graduated in a given year, regardless of how long it took them.
Terry Bergeson, state superintendent of public instruction, said the focus remains on four-year high school programs. “But our goal will be to graduate students with a meaningful diploma, even if it takes individual students a longer time to earn it,” she said.
Bergeson credited schools overall with doing a better job of keeping students from quitting.
Efforts in Snohomish County range form targeting individual students to restructuring large, comprehensive high schools into smaller, self-contained schools.
“It’s all about connections,” said David Golden, principal of Lynnwood High School, which posted the county’s best improvement, raising its on-time graduation rate to 69 percent, up nearly 13 percentage points.
Caitlin Johnson, 16, was considered at high risk of dropping out when she began her freshman year at Edmonds-Woodway High School two years ago, due to poor grades and “that slacker mentality,” she said.
Now, she’s preparing to start classes at Edmonds Community College in a program that allows her to earn high school and college credits simultaneously.
She credits her close relationship with Patti Stracener, who is leading the dropout prevention program at Edmonds-Woodway. “Having that advocate on your side able to work with the teachers is so important,” Johnson said.
In Everett, the district has added online courses, as well as staff members who focus solely on students in danger of dropping out. Fabian now is “mining the data” to target other problem areas, including courses with high failure rates and attendance problems in elementary and middle schools.
“One big number isn’t going to tell the story,” she said.
Reporter Melissa Slager: 425-339-3465 or mslager@heraldnet.com.
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