Dropouts

The dropout rate in the Los Angeles Unified School District declined almost 17% -- welcome news in a school system beleaguered by budget cuts and ongoing battles over future reforms. The dropout rate for the 2007-08 school year came in at 26.4%, down from 31.7% for the previous year and among the largest improvements in the state. L.A. Unified still trails all other large urban school systems in California except Oakland Unified.

Just 25 of California's 2,462 high schools account for more than a fifth of the state's dropouts, with the problem heavily concentrated in charter and alternative schools, according to a study being released today by UC Santa Barbara. However, a UCSB researcher said it wasn't clear whether the schools were responsible for the problem or were simply the recipients of a disproportionate share of troubled students.

The incoming leader of the state Senate said Thursday that he wants to overhaul California's programs for reducing the number of high school dropouts, calling it a top legislative priority. Under existing requirements, Crenshaw High School in Los Angeles would be allowed to take more than two centuries to bring its graduation rate up to 82.9%, which is the current state standard, said Sen. Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento).

Deploying a long-promised tool to track high school dropouts, the state released numbers Wednesday estimating that 1 in 4 California students -- and 1 in 3 in Los Angeles -- quit school. The rates are considerably higher than previously acknowledged but lower than some independent estimates. The figures are based on a new statewide tracking system that relies on identification numbers that were issued to California public school students beginning in fall 2006.

Ongoing tensions between City Hall and the Los Angeles Unified School District flared in public Wednesday during an exchange between the mayor's top education advisor and the school board president. Deputy Mayor Ramon C. Cortines first accused the district of withholding a report on dropouts, then later, he and board President Marlene Canter sparred over the mayor's refusal to meet with her.

Although the Los Angeles Unified School District has ramped up its efforts to keep students in school, a new report shows that thousands are still skipping class routinely, and the problem is rampant in a few low-performing schools. The report is the first in what is intended as a series of monthly accounts that will track truancy and absenteeism in every middle and high school in the district -- something that has not been done in such a systematic way before.

Sen. Jack Scott, a career educator, remembers when his daughter broke the news that she was going to marry a commercial fisherman. "This guy was not too happy," the Altadena Democrat says, referring to himself. His daughter's suitor "was not highly educated; he'd never gone to college," recalls Scott, who at the time was dean of instruction at Orange Coast College, and later would become president of Cypress College and then Pasadena City College.

Educators and politicians who fret about Los Angeles' high school dropout crisis might want to heed the advice of 15-year-old Carla Hernandez: Hire more teachers who care. Slash overcrowded classrooms. Stop sending failing students to the next grade. Hernandez and nearly two dozen other teenagers spent part of the summer studying several of the city's most troubled high schools with the guidance of a UCLA research program.

A new campaign to lower the dropout rate in Los Angeles schools will rely heavily on popular Internet websites such as YouTube and MySpace, as well as radio spots aimed at vulnerable teens, school officials announced Monday. The Los Angeles Unified School District initiative also features a new website, www.MyFutureMyDecision.com. The site highlights alternative ways of earning a diploma and describes the district's many continuation schools and community college programs.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa met behind closed doors Wednesday with city schools Supt. Roy Romer to talk about dropout rates and collaborative projects -- although they skirted the mayor's controversial proposal to take over the school system. Romer said the meeting was the first between the two men in at least two months. Since then, Villaraigosa has increased his criticism of the Los Angeles Unified School District as he builds a case to seize control of it.