Va. graduation, dropout rates improve slightly

Virginia's graduation and dropout rates improved slightly over last year, with varied results across districts in the Richmond region.

Data released today by the state's Department of Education showed that 83.2 percent of students who started ninth grade in the 2005-06 school year earned a state-approved diploma within four years.

An additional 7.9 percent of that class, or 7,772 students, dropped out, according to state figures -- and more than half of those students left school by the end of the 10th grade.

The on-time graduation rate for the 98,043 students in the class of 2009 is an uptick from the four-year graduation rate of 82.2 percent for the class of 2008. The 2009 dropout rate decreased from last year's 8.7 percent.

"A one-point increase in the graduation rate represents nearly 1,000 additional young men and women who earned diplomas and are ready for post-secondary education or entry-level employment," said Superintendent of Public Instruction Patricia I. Wright.

In the Richmond area, Chesterfield County schools' graduation rate increased to 85.9 percent from 84.7 percent last year. Hanover County schools rose from 91.8 percent to 92.3 percent and Richmond city schools rose to 68.7 percent from 65.9 percent. Henrico County schools dropped from 81.9 percent to 81 percent.

King and Queen County, which has one public high school, made marked gains in its graduation rate, rising to 85.3 percent from 60.3 percent last year.

"It's all attributed to the teachers at the high school that really made a tremendous effort to improve not only student retention, but improved student achievement," said Superintendent Richard W. Layman.

Hopewell had the state's lowest four-year graduation rate, at 60.5 percent, but that was up from 58.3 percent last year.

Hopewell schools Superintendent Winston O. Odom said the district has a relatively transient population and that about two dozen students are unaccounted for. That many students can significantly alter the percentages, he said.

"We are on the right track. We are improving, not at the rate that I'd like, but we are improving," Odom said. "I'm very confident our tracking measures that we have in place right now" will help.

The rates are calculated using a data-management system that tracks each of the state's students. The system takes into account students who move between Virginia school districts. This is the second year that the state has reported graduation rates this way. Previously the state used a single-year snapshot.

The state figures show that 51.4 percent of the students who dropped out left by the end of the 10th grade. Nearly 23 percent of the dropouts left as seniors.

"That's disheartening to me," Wright said, adding that the numbers would be even higher if not for General Assembly funding specially for school graduation assistance programs.

"A one percent increase in the cohort graduation rate in one year is, in my opinion, educationally significant," she said.

Consistent with research nationally, the state figures show that students who repeated grades, frequently missed school and attended multiple schools were more likely to not graduate. Forty percent of the students who dropped out were ninth and 10th graders who were 17 years old or older.

Former West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education, said literacy also plays a major role. Students need strong reading skills by the time they enter high school to analyze and understand material.

"That's why we see this pattern, we believe, in the ninth and 10th grade of a higher dropout rate. It's all accumulated," he said. "They either get mad or get sad but the same thing happens -- they drop out."