Researchers Reverse High School Rating

By Mark Reynolds; Journal Staff Writer

The Johns Hopkins University study had erroneously named Johnston High School a “dropout factory.”

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JOHNSTON – The authors of a widely reported Johns Hopkins University study have acknowledged that they incorrectly labeled Johnston High School as “fitting the profile of a dropout factory.”

The school was among 1,700 that Hopkins researchers spotlighted in a nationwide study that basically examined the numbers of ninth graders who reach 12th grade. The study called the worst-performing schools “dropout factories” and included Central and Mount Pleasant high schools in Providence.

The researchers reported that the average number of students in senior classes at the 1,700 schools was either 60 percent – or less than 60 percent – of the total number of students who arrived as freshman, or as sophomores in certain programs.

This research was used in an Associated Press report that said such schools, including the high school in Johnston and four others in Rhode Island, are “eligible for the dropout factory label.”

However, since then, the Hopkins researchers have acknowledged that their initial data did not reflect the number of Johnston students transferring to a three-year vocational program.

Robert Balfanz, one of the researchers at Hopkins’ center for Social Organization of Schools, had Johnston High School removed from the list after he received an e-mail from its principal, Elizabeth Mantelli. She mentioned the stream of transfers to the vocational technical program at Cranston West High School

“We send up to 100 sophomores per year to that area tech school,” Mantelli wrote. “Often, my students graduate at the top of their class at Cranston West High School. Certainly, they are not dropouts.’”

Mantelli, who helped lead a successful effort to protect the high school’s accreditation, was happy to see the high school disassociated with the so-called dropout factories.

“I’m very pleased,” she said. “I’m very sorry we were put on the list in the first place and I think it did a lot of damage.”

The Associated Press had reported that an average of just 54 percent of Johnston freshman had made it to senior year over a three- year period.

In their correction, the Hopkins researchers reported that more than 93 percent of sophomores made it to the Johnston Class of 2003 and the figure was higher than 71 percent for the classes of 2004 and 2005.

Balfanz did not respond to a request for comment.

Mantelli acknowledged the value of trying to develop information that gives a more informative picture than the graduation rates kept by public schools.

The traditional graduation rates reflect only the number of students who drop out during their senior year.

However, Mantelli said she doesn’t trust the researchers’ information.

Educators around the country, as well as in Rhode Island, suggest that the study gives an inaccurate picture of how many students complete high school.

One issue involves the researchers’ willingness to count as dropouts transfer students and students who were held back one year.

When the report initially came out, the researchers defended their methodology. They said most missing students who transferred into a high school in sophomore, junior or senior year were counted in the study, which helps offset students who left.

The study also made adjustments for any big one-year dips that might be caused by the closing of a local business or plant, according to one researcher.

However, in Johnston, officials suggest that the popularity of the region’s Catholic schools can also throw off the numbers.

School Committee Chairwoman Janice Mele said that some students leave public school to attend parochial schools and it’s unfair for those students to be counted as dropouts.

The graduation rate for Johnston High School in 2006 was 85 percent, Mantelli said, emphasizing that most of the 15 percent who left school their senior year do so to take jobs.

She said she expects the rate to be even higher for 2007.

The final rate, she said, still hasn’t been established because of confusion about the status of some students who were counted among the graduates.

mreynold@projo.com / (401) 277-7490

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