Editorial: The real dropout problem remains out of view

If you want to understand California's high school dropout problem, take a look at two new studies by the California Dropout Research Project.

They reveal that dropouts are concentrated in 500 of the state's 2,500 high schools. These schools account for 80 percent of the dropouts in California.

That's not all. Kids who aren't succeeding at traditional comprehensive high schools increasingly are sent to alternative schools. The hope is that these schools can serve as a safety net for these kids – either giving them the skills they need to return to a traditional high school or the courses they need to graduate. But the new studies show that dropouts are concentrated in these alternative schools – with little accountability.

Those results certainly hold true in our region.

Take a look at three school districts: San Juan Unified, Elk Grove Unified and Sacramento City Unified. The traditional comprehensive high schools show dropout rates of 0 percent to 5 percent, and no wonder. Struggling kids are referred to alternative schools, where dropout rates are in double digits.

For example, in the San Juan Unified School District in 2005-06, the highest dropout rates were at alternative schools: Options for Youth Charter (60.6 percent), Palos Verde Continuation (50 percent), Sierra Nueva Continuation High (45.1 percent), La Entrada Continuation High (40.2 percent), Via Del Campo Continuation High (27.8 percent), Choices Charter (22.1 percent).

The same pattern holds in the Elk Grove Unified School District. The highest dropout rates were at alternative schools: Capital Community Day (75 percent), Daylor Continuation High (43.7 percent), Las Flores High (27.7 percent), Elk Grove Charter (21.6 percent), Calvine High (16.8 percent), Rio Cazadero Continuation High (16.8 percent).

And in the Sacramento City Unified School District, only one high school showed dropout rates of more than 4 percent in 2005-06 – American Legion Continuation High (14.8 percent).

For complete school and district results, see: www.lmri.ucsb.edu/ dropouts/sb8table.php.

Clearly, California's alternative schools deserve greater scrutiny. Their purpose is to help kids who aren't succeeding in traditional high schools. Are they serving that purpose? Or are they serving as a way for schools and districts to put struggling students out of sight and out of mind?

A February 2007 report by the Legislative Analyst's Office suggested that schools and districts too often "use referrals to alternative schools as a way to avoid responsibility for the progress of low-performing students," rendering their test scores invisible.

Sen. Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, pushed through a bill that would require traditional high schools that refer students to alternative schools to include the test scores of those students in their own school data. But that law, signed last October, doesn't take effect until 2011.

We can't wait that long. Alternative schools, where dropouts are concentrated, need to come out of the shadows. In our region and across the state, put alternative schools – and the traditional high schools that refer students to them – in the spotlight.