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Six schools in region classified by report as ‘dropout factories’
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Howard Woodson Senior High School in NE is among three D.C. schools named on a national list for having 60 percent or fewer students advancing from freshman to senior status on time. Woodson is the worst of the local schools, with just 48 percent of their students progressing on schedule over the past three years.
The report, by researchers at Johns Hopkins University, found that in close to 2,000 high schools in the United States — or one in 10 — 60 percent or less of the students advanced from freshman to senior status on time.
Campuses with such drastic problems keeping high schoolers in line were classified as dropout factories, a distinction belonging to the following regional schools: Ballou, Bell and Woodson high schools in D.C.; Bladensburg, High Point and Forestville high schools in Prince George’s.
The worst of the six, based on the analysis, was Woodson, where for the classes of 2004, 2005 and 2006, a mere 48 percent of students progressed from their first to fourth years of high school without any hitches.
The three-year averages in Ballou and Bell were 49 and 53 percent, respectively, while the trio of Prince George’s sites mentioned ranged from Forestville at 52 percent to High Point at 60 percent, and Bladensburg halfway between them. School officials could not be reached for comment Monday evening.
But the issue of students dropping out and failing to graduate from public high schools has plagued the nation’s capital for years.
Herb Tillery, executive director of the College Success Foundation, told The Examiner earlier this year it’s believed that fewer than 1 in 10 D.C. public school students make it through both high school and college.
The dismal statistics even prompted former D.C. Superintendent Clifford Janey to create the Double the Numbers Coalition, which is still working on a comprehensive plan for the city’s youth.
Johns Hopkins researchers, in looking at characteristics of schools that fared worst, found that race and poverty were critical.
For instance, a majority minority high school is five times more likely to promote half or less of freshmen to senior year status.
However, majority minority high schools with more resources were discovered to have students that progressed through high school at about the same rates as white schools.
dlevitz@dcexaminer.com
Comments from Examiner Readers
3:19 PM MST on Fri., Nov. 2, 2007 re: "Six schools in region classified by report as ‘dropout factories’"
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11:29 AM MST on Tue., Oct. 30, 2007
re: "Six schools in region classified by report as ‘dropout factories’"
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Examiner Reader said:
I disagree with the comment as well as the article - which is hardly scientific by any measure. Students at Bell are engaged and very interested in education. The fact that Bell has a 93% attendance rate is indicative of a commitment to excel. In the study, the researchers took the difference between the number of students in a freshman class and the number of graduates from that class four years later. Any attrition within that period was considered a dropout. By its own admission, the study does not follow individual students over time. A fair number of Bell students are English language learners (ELL) that tend to be held back a year to gain proficiency in their new language. In high schools with large ELLs, the traditional graduation cycle tends to expand to a fifth year. Further, the study does not account for student mobility rates – the rate at which students transfer between different schools. As such, the study grossly miscalculates the Bell graduation rate.
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Examiner Reader said:
Bell in DC has a large number of immigrant students wno are often unprepared for high school work in English. They come from countries where attendance isn't compulsory, or laws not enfornced, are not on grade level in their native-language skills. Then they come here and are expected to perform academically in English in a short period of time. School is frustrating, often disorganized and filled with drama and violence. The boys drop out and do restaurant work and the girls get pregnant by older guys. They stop coming to school and become statistics. Plus their parents aren't highly educated or strong believers in education as the most important thing in a youth's life. For some of these young people dropping out, they are so behind academically that it isn't a surprise.
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