District’s grad rate needs a closer look
Overall Newport-Mesa Unified School District is doing a top-notch job
of getting students through the system in 12 years, even with the
new, more stringent graduation requirements.
According to the California Department of Education, the district
graduated 93.6% of seniors last year.
Two schools had 100% graduation rates.
That’s great. But it’s not the whole picture here. The district’s
two alternative education high schools did not have such impressive
graduation rates on the 2003 Adequate Yearly Progress Phase II
reports, which chronicles the graduation success rate for the class
of 2002.
At Monte Vista Alternative only 60.3% of seniors graduated. That’s
not a great number, and is sadly close to neighboring district’s
alternative education graduation numbers.
However, the real worry is at Back Bay Continuation. There the
percentage of seniors moving on dropped to an appalling 16.7%.
Newport-Mesa officials attributed the low rates to the “unique
structure” of the school, but a drop from 76.9% the year before still
raises a red flag.
The report uses a formula that takes into account the number of
dropouts each year, the number of students graduating who began as
freshman together and, while transfers don’t hurt a school’s
standing, a student leaving without a forwarding school transcript
does.
Regardless of the possible loopholes in the formula, or the
flexible structure at Back Bay, according to the report 10 students
in the class of 2002 dropped out and two graduated. Any way you cut
it, that’s not good. That five dropped out in the 1998-99 school
year, plus five more in the 1999-00 school year, does not make it any
better. The numbers indicate that the program is not engaging
students.
The other district claim -- that students often enter the school
as seniors but have too few credits to graduate -- may explain
numbers but does not diminish concern. We cannot let these students
fall behind and through the cracks.
This is without a sentiment the school district and its educators
share. But it something they and the community must be vigilant
about.
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