When the California Department of Education reported Gilroy
Unified School District’s dropout rate for the 2008-09 school year
was 22 percent for grades 9-12, administrators conducted an
investigation.
When the California Department of Education reported Gilroy Unified School District’s dropout rate for the 2008-09 school year was 22 percent for grades 9-12, administrators conducted an investigation.
GUSD officials suspected the 2008-09 dropout rate – significantly higher than GUSD’s 13 percent dropout rate in 2007-08 – correlated with the first-time implementation of a new statewide data system.
Administrators found skewed statistics from information incorrectly inputed pertaining to GUSD students who moved out of the state, students who moved out of the country and students who transferred to private schools.
GUSD confirmed of the 186 students reported as 9-12 grade dropouts, 63 fell into the above categories. This adjusted GUSD’s actual 2008-09 dropout rate to15.5 percent.
The county average is 16 percent, and the state average is 21.5 percent according to GUSD, which is filing an adjustment report with the CDE.
