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SCHOOL JOURNAL

School Officials Slam Dropout Report

David Mills
Connection Staff
December 2007

School officials are sharply criticizing a report that identified Emery Secondary School as one of 1,700 schools nationwide as “dropout factories.”

“I’m confused by their methodology,” said acting Emery Superintendent Steven Wesley. “I’m also disappointed to learn they would describe any place kids go as a factory.”

The report by John Hopkins University was released in early November. It studied the senior classes of high schools across the country for three consecutive years. It identified as “dropout factories” campuses where no more than 60 percent of the students who started out as freshmen made it through their senior year. Those institutions accounted for 12 percent of all schools nationwide.

There were 1,700 schools in the United States labeled. In California, 107 were targeted as “dropout factories.” Two were in the Bay Area. One of them was Emery Secondary.

Emery officials criticized the report for looking only at the raw numbers and not the deeper causes.

“The facts are the facts,” said school board member Kurt Brinkman, “but this report lists the numbers without looking at what’s behind the numbers.”

Wesley said Emery Secondary will typically have 70 students in its freshman class. Of those, about 40 will graduate four years later.

He said 65 percent of the students who don’t get their diploma in Emery aren’t around on graduation night because they have moved to another community or a different school for better opportunities.

“We don’t hold on to these kids because of upward mobility,” Wesley said.

Another major factor is employment. Some students have to leave school to get a job.

“There are family hardships where a kid has to go to work,” said Wesley.

Another reason some children move on is because of family trauma, either from a divorce, abuse or a gang situation.

Wesley said the students who actually quit school because they fall too far behind or don’t like attending class are only about 8 percent of the children classified as dropouts.

For example, this fall Emery Secondary began the year with 77 seniors, its highest number in years. So far, four of those students have dropped out. Two of them moved to other towns, one transferred to Bishop O’Dowd and the other accepted a full-time job.

Brinkman said these factors should have been considered before Emery Secondary was put into the “dropout factory” category.

“We are an inner-city school,” he said. “We are not a white, suburban school.”

Emery school officials said the “dropout factory” label has been hurtful to Emery Secondary students. However, they plan to use the report as a teaching tool.

“Hopefully, it will ignite and provoke kids into never becoming a statistic,” said Wesley.

The study has also convinced District officials to become more pro-active in getting the word out on Emery’s successes.

“I think it will spur people on,” said Emery School Board President Melodi Dice, “It forces us to identify ourselves better.”

“We don’t want anybody else to tell our story,” said Wesley. “We want to tell our own story.”