It is important for school districts to break down the dropout numbers into subcategories, in order to present a fuller account of the different reasons why students may be counted as dropouts, and to create targeted programs tailored to district-level and student-level situations. Figure A illustrates how school districts have tracked the movement of students in and out of the school system.
The first category, Graduate, includes students who have fulfilled both unit and California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) requirements for graduating in 2007. The second category, Special Ed Completer, includes special education completers as a separate category in order to correct for the upward bias of traditional cohort survival dropout rates, which include special education students in the non-completers category. The Continuer category includes high school students who do not graduate in the traditional four-year period, but are continuing to pursue that goal. Including this category is important because it does not penalize school districts that have eliminated social promotion policies.
As shown by the Leaver category in Figure B, many students leave high school for various reasons to continue their education at other institutions including community colleges and adult education programs. These students typically account for 15-20% of the cohort survival population and districts expend an ample amount of resources to ensure that the status of these students is recorded accurately.
The Dropout subcategory breaks down the different types of dropout students in a given district. Those students who have completed 12th grade but did not graduate, did not return, and did not transfer are typically students who either have not passed the CAHSEE exam or have not met school graduation requirements. This subcategory of dropout students typically accounts for around 1% of the district dropout rate. Within school districts there is also a small number of students who are no longer in school due to disciplinary action, home-schooling, or medical reasons. These students require additional reporting and documentation under CBEDS manual rules. Finally, the Left, no known enrollment and Other subcategories account for the bulk of the district dropout figures. The first category includes students whom the school district has documented as not being enrolled in any educational institution. The second category includes students whom the district either has been unable to document, or who are unable to attend school, such as those in the juvenile justice system.
Distinguishing subcategories of student status within the population of student dropouts is important, because it provides a more accurate understanding of actual dropouts versus students who are wrongly classified as dropouts because of a lack of resources to track student migration. The successful implementation of CALPADS will help districts to track students efficiently and better target dropout prevention programs.
Figure B presents data from the six California school districts participatingin PUER: Fresno Unified School District (FUSD), Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD), Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD),, Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD),, San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD),, and San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD),. Each of these districts has been reporting dropout rates using the CALPADS categories and subcategories in order to draw attention to the different reasons why students do not graduate high school within the traditional 4-year period. The dropout categories and subcategories below were drawn from cohort survival figures for the entering high school class of 2003.It is important to keep in mind that dropout rates represent a snapshot of student enrollment status but students’ circumstances may change at some point in the future. Therefore, each PUER district actively extends efforts to increase student retention and encourage dropouts to re-enroll.
