Schools See Overall Rise in Number of Dropouts

By KRISTIN DAVIS

BY KRISTIN DAVIS

THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

Dropout rates among local school districts mirrored the state trend in 2005-2006, with slightly fewer students staying in school than the year before.

Five counties saw an increase in the number of dropouts – Camden, Dare, Hyde, Elizabeth City/Pasquotank and Perquimans. Three saw a decrease – Edenton-Chowan, Currituck and Gates.

Most, though, stayed below the state average of 5.04 percent, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction recently reported. Just two districts recorded a higher percentage: Elizabeth City- Pasquotank and Perquimans.

The state dropout rate was up from 4.74 percent in 2004-2005. More students said they were withdrawing from school to enroll in a community college than any other reason, according to the state report – nearly 2,700 of the 22,180 ninth- through 12th-graders who dropped out.

That was the case with many of the 47 students who left Perquimans County Schools last year, said Public Information Officer Brenda Lassiter. With a rate of 7.75 percent, the district was among the highest in the area.

“It’s one of the most perplexing problems schools have to deal with,” Lassiter said. “Every child who drops out has a different reason.”

Some withdraw because of personal or physical problems, some to go to work and some get behind and feel overwhelmed, she said. “Some feel they can’t be successful in a regular classroom setting.”

There are programs to combat those cases, Lassiter said. Students who miss more than eight days of school go before a “judicial attendance council,” which brings together the student, parents and school officials to identify reasons and address them early.

Also, remediation is offered daily after school from 3 to 6 p.m. Funded with a grant, it’s free to students, and a bus takes them home afterward, Lassiter said.

Dare County had one of the highest dropout rates in the state in the 2000-2001 school year, according to school officials.

“We did a study to look at what the factors were,” said Nancy Griffin the district’s director of secondary instruction. “They were capable students with high absentee rates.”

Because of the summertime tourist season here, many families were taking vacations during the regular school year, she said. Dare now tries to put out its calendar two years in advance and has limited “education travel” to five days.

The system also stresses good attendance at a very early age, she said.

An alternative program requires the state-mandated 20 credits for a high school diploma rather than Dare’s 28. And online “credit recovery courses” allow students who have failed a class to repeat “only the objectives they haven’t mastered,” Griffin said. “This helps the student who feels the end isn’t in sight.”

The measures helped improve Dare’s dropout rate from 7.22 percent in 2000-2001 to 2.64 percent three years later, she said.

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Reach Kristin Davis at (252) 441-1623 or kristin.davis@pilotonline.com

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