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Cincinnati
Enquirer
Graduation,
dropout rates are
improving
Newport Independent turns surging
problem around
Jan 22, 2013
Written
by Jessica Brown
A
national report released today
has good news about the nation’s high schools.
Fewer
students dropped out of high
school in 2009-10 than the previous year, and more students overall
graduated.
That’s
according to a preliminary
report from the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for
Education
Statistics.
Meanwhile,
state data shows the
Newport Independent School District is making progress in curbing its
dropout
rate. The Enquirer reported in May that the dropout rate for the urban
district
had skyrocketed to 8.4 percent in 2008-09, the highest rate in our
region and
in Kentucky.
Data
from the Kentucky Department
of Education shows that the rate fell to 6.6 percent in 2009-10.
Although
that’s still the highest in the state, it shrank more than the rates in
most
other school districts.
The
fall occurred even as the
state’s dropout rate rose slightly, according to the national report,
while
dropout rates in Ohio and Indiana remained relatively flat.
Newport
officials were unable to be
reached Friday. In May they told The Enquirer they’d beefed up
dropout-prevention programs, like adding an in-school daycare and
focusing on
mentoring and credit-recovery programs. They said the 2010-11 rate has
dropped
even more.
The
preliminary report lists state
and national data; it will add district-specific data in a few weeks.
The Kentucky
Department of Education lists its dropout statistics online. Equivalent
information is not available from the Ohio or Indiana education
departments
Graduation,
dropout rates
Among
the highlights in the
national report:
•
The national graduation rate was
78.2 percent (3.1 million graduates), meaning 78.2 percent of students
who were
freshmen graduated as seniors in the 2009-10 school year. That’s up
from 75.5
percent the previous year and is the highest it’s been since 1974,
study
organizers said.
Read
the rest of the article and get the full
report at the Cincinnati
Enquirer
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