The high school dropout rate for the Gilroy Unified School
District’s 2008-09 school year increased by 9.2 percentage points
compared to the previous school session.
The high school dropout rate for the Gilroy Unified School District’s 2008-09 school year increased by 9.2 percentage points, compared to the previous school session.
According to the California Department of Education’s annual report on dropout and graduation rates released Wednesday, GUSD’s 186 total dropouts from grades 9-12 accounted for a 22.2 percent total on an adjusted four-year rate.
“Unfortunately, the district’s rate was significantly impacted by two programs that are no longer in existence – Community Day School and El Portal High School,” said GUSD superintendent Deborah Flores. “We closed El Portal (a charter school) in June 2008 due to concerns about the students’ academic performance. Community Day School was closed in June 2009 due to budget concerns and the encroachment on our general fund.”
For the 2007-08 school year, GUSD had 105 total dropouts, or 13 percent on the same adjusted rate.
In Santa Clara County overall, GUSD had the highest percentage of dropouts even though they were ranked 6th in the total number of dropouts out of the 12 reported districts.
The East Side Union High School District had the highest total of dropouts with 1,462. That district has a total enrollment of 26,039, while GUSD has 3,142.
GUSD’s 9-12 enrollment in 2007-08 was 3,058.
Wednesday’s numbers for the county dropout rate is 16.1 percent as compared to the 2007-08 school year total of 14.4 percent.
The statewide total also increased with a 21.7 percent total as compared to the 2007-08 school year total of 18.9 percent.
According to the press release, the data was collected through the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System – in its first year of use.
Flores said she believes there are inaccuracies in the data.
“The state just made a major shift to a new database called CALPADS and we suspect there are students with incomplete information and thus, are showing up as drop outs,” she explained. “We are working on this and we expect to see an improvement in numbers.”
The California Department of Education raised similar concerns in its release: “Caution should be used when analyzing this first year of data through CALPADS. There is always some variance in the information gathered in the first year of using a new data system. Some (local educational agencies) struggled with submitting this first year of data because no specific resources were made available to LEAs to implement the more complex CALPADS data submissions. Fluctuations in the individual rates of schools and districts submitting their data are to be expected, considering this is the first year of CALPADS implementation and reliance on aggregate formula rates.”
