Dialing down state’s highest dropout rate
BURLINGTON (MCT) — What can be done to reduce the dropout rate in the Burlington School District?
In March, the state reported Burlington had the state’s highest dropout rate during the 2007-08 school year. One hundred twenty-three of the district’s 1,422 high school students had dropped out. The 8.58 percent rate more than doubled the previous year’s rate.
Statewide, the graduation rate was 88.7 percent in 2008. But in Burlington, it was 74.74 percent.
“The Burlington School District has the highest dropout rate in Iowa, and we aren’t too happy about that,” said Deb Dowell, director for the Workforce Investment Act, an employment trainee program. “We have a significant amount of young people that aren’t even in school, getting into trouble and having babies.”
Linda Robinson, outreach coordinator for the Burlington School District, believes once a student falls behind, they don’t feel the desire to catch up.
“It’s all about credits,” she said. “When you are a senior, and you have the credits of a sophomore, you feel overwhelmed, and you don’t feel like you can keep up.
“So then, they begin to think of alternatives such as a GED (General Educational Development) or alternative school.”
One factor that had a major impact on Burlington’s dropout rate was a change to the district’s GED program. For many years, the school district worked with Southeastern Community College to provide Adult Basic Education so students could get their GED. This year however, the Department of Education said the school district no longer could count any students working toward their GED.
The program was redesigned to meet the state’s request and 26 of the 47 students dropped out.
Robinson said not all dropouts are due to students not producing in the classroom.
“Sometimes there are some real poverty problems with some of the students. They have had to help out with things at home like earning money, and there are some kids that are homeless,” she said.
“There are a couple kids I deal with now who have the potential of getting scholarships, but they have something going on in their lives personally, and they just want to go to alternative school or get a GED. It’s sad.”
School officials are working to reduce the dropout rate.
“The schools care,” said Jane Evans, the district’s assistant superintendent. “We encourage students to come and get acquainted with faculty, but we as educators need to make the effort to get out in the community and meet parents.
“We want our young people to know that if they want to be successful adults in the United States, they need a good education, and that means completing high school, not dropping out to get a GED,” she said.
Robinson says it’s up to the student’s parents and their support system to get the students involved in school.
“Kids learn that school is or isn’t important when they are young,” Robinson said. “You have to teach these kids at a young age that school is important because when they get to middle school or high school, they will know this is where they need to be.
“It takes a parent or an adult to believe in the students when they don’t believe in themselves,” she said. “I also tell the students not to give up because you can still recover.”
Of the 123 dropouts reported, 65 percent were boys.
“We have to ask ourselves, what’s going on with the males? Why aren’t they coming to school?,” Robinson said. “I want to know more about the history of the individual and find the common denominators as far as them as a group.”
Burlington school officials have several programs at every grade level to help students with their schoolwork and keep them in the classroom.
In the elementary schools there is after-school tutoring. Reading and math coaches are available to help teachers with teaching concepts and to offer feedback and tips for improvement. Preschool for 4-year-olds also has been expanded to four sections so children at a young age can prepare for school.
Middle school students will have more after-school and summer-school opportunities, and the math and computer lab will become part of every students’ math curriculum.
To help students at the Burlington Alternative High School, Principal Laurie Noll wants teachers and staff to build a stronger relationship with the students.
“We try to know each student by name, and we try to call parents to keep in touch with students at home,” Noll said. “If needed, we also have counseling sessions for each parent and student.”
Noll said she and her staff want to do whatever they can to help kids stay in school.
