Dropout report hits non-traditional sites

Schools designed as a last resort for keeping kids in school are in fact seeing an alarming dropout rate, according to a statewide report released today.

The report, produced by the California Dropout Research Project, found that a disproportionate number of California's dropouts are coming from non-traditional schools that include charters, continuation schools and alternative programs.

Such schools produced more than 40 percent of the state's dropouts in 2005-06, despite enrolling only 12 percent of the high school population.

The findings suggest a need for greater accountability of non-traditional schools – and perhaps even reconsideration of the current alternative education system, said lead researcher Russell Rumberger.

"It doesn't seem to be a panacea," said Rumberger, a University of California, Santa Barbara, professor who also directs the California Dropout Research Project. "I think we need to take a harder look at these alternative settings."

The report studied the question of which schools produce the most dropouts. The answer – not surprising to many – was non-traditional schools that serve an already struggling population.

"For many of the students, this is a last stop" after failure at other schools, said Donna O'Neil, director of curriculum and assessment for the San Juan Unified School District. "To me, it's not surprising they don't necessarily stay there."

What surprised Rumberger, he said, was the extent of the contrast. When ranking the state's 2,462 high schools in terms of dropouts, almost half of the top 100 schools were non-traditional. Two local schools – Options for Youth and Visions in Education charter schools, both authorized by San Juan Unified – were included in that top 100.

Representatives from the two schools could not be reached Wednesday.

The report is not meant to condemn charter and alternative schools, Rumberger said, but put the public spotlight on what is happening there. He also hopes to draw greater attention to what he called the "dual system" that has emerged in California – traditional schools filled with "relatively advantaged" and successful students, and alternatives concentrated with often disadvantaged and disenfranchised youth.

"I don't think they're easy environments to be successful in, and the numbers suggest they're not," he said of the state's alternative programs.

The methodology – always a point of contention in the struggle to count dropouts – already is being called into question. Rumberger based his report on enrollment data that schools report to the state – figures based on the enrollment of a single day in October. He compared those to numbers of students who dropped out by the end of the year, without taking into account the ebb and flow typical in many alternative programs.

Russlynn Ali, director of the Education Trust West, a Bay Area nonprofit, called the dropout figures used by the state – and by Rumberger – "wildly inaccurate." She called the report suspect. "The one-year dropout rate really tells you next to nothing," Ali said.

The state is in the process of planning for a data system that would more accurately quantify the dropout problem, though implementation is not expected to start for another year and a half.

Until that system exists, Ali said the dropout crisis should be studied in all high schools – not just in charters and alternatives.

San Juan Unified's O'Neil said the schools that send students to non-traditional programs need to be closely examined as well. But she expressed concern that the system's last line of defense in the battle against dropouts is not as strong as it should be.

"This report points out that's supposed to be a safety net," she said, "and that's not working either."

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