District/School Administration Administration
The Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education

Dropout Prevention and Recovery Initiatives and the School Year 2007-2008 Dropout Report

At the March 2009 meeting I provided Board members with a number of documents that highlighted state efforts to help increase the number of students who graduate from high school. At the April Board meeting staff from the Department will discuss some of these state initiatives and their role in helping to stem the number of youth who leave school without earning a high school diploma. The Board will also receive an update on the School Year 2007-2008 Dropout Report.

Despite state and local efforts to reduce the dropout rate, in Massachusetts the percentage of students leaving public school each year without having earned a high school diploma has been relatively constant. Over the last decade the statewide dropout rate has hovered around 3.5%, and on average approximately 10,000 Massachusetts high school students dropped out of school annually. While the dropout rate has remained steady, the cost to individuals, state, and local governments has changed dramatically.

High school dropouts earn almost $500,000 less over their lifetime than their counterparts who have a high school diploma. The average high school dropout will impose a net fiscal burden of nearly $275,000 on taxpayers over his/her working lifetime.

Dropout prevention and recovery is not about one single program or initiative - it requires community and family efforts as well as educational initiatives to strengthen curriculum and instruction, provide effective professional development, address academic and nonacademic barriers to learning, and create a variety of educational pathways to meet the varied needs of our students. Below is a brief summary of the 2007-08 Dropout Data Report, as well as overviews of several current dropout prevention activities.

School Year 2007-08 Dropout Report

According to the 2007-08 High School Dropout Report (attached), in the 2007-08 school year, 9,959 or 3.4 percent of students in grades nine through twelve dropped out of school. This rate represented a decrease of 1,477 students and 0.4 percentage points from the 2006-07 school year. While a continued focus on data quality certainly is a factor, it should be noted that the Department did not make any significant changes to the methodology for the 2007-08 school year, which suggests that the decrease is real and not a consequence of changes in reporting.

While the results show we have much more work to do, the dropout data are encouraging among various student groups. The five largest racial/ethnic groups all saw their dropout rate decrease in 2007-08 as compared to the 2006-07 school year, with Hispanic students showing the largest decrease of 0.8 percentage points. Two of our student groups with the highest dropout rates, Hispanic males and African-American males, had decreases of 0.9 and 1.1 percentage points respectively. In addition, special education, low-income, and students with limited English proficiency all had a lower dropout rate for the 2007-08 school year than the year before.

Graduation and Dropout Prevention and Recovery Commission

In August 2008, Chapter 315 of the Acts of 2008, an Act to Improve Dropout Prevention and Reporting of Graduation Rates, was passed by the legislature and signed into law by Governor Patrick. The Act established a Graduation and Dropout Prevention and Recovery Commission to make recommendations on ten topic areas including: setting a goal and timeline for reducing the statewide dropout rate, creating a dropout prevention and recovery grant program, and considering whether to raise the compulsory attendance age from 16 to 18.

The 27-member commission is chaired by Secretary of Education Paul Reville and co-chaired by Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development Suzanne Bump and me. The commission includes state legislators and/or their designees, representatives from public school districts, higher education, the Massachusetts Teachers Association, a variety of youth-serving state agencies, and community-based organizations. A list of members is attached.

The commission's report, including findings and recommendations with any proposed legislation, will be submitted to the House and Senate Chairs of Education and the Chairs of the House and Senate Committees on Ways and Means by May 15, 2009. We will provide copies to the Board.

Dropout Prevention and Recovery Work Group

In the summer of 2008, the Department created a Dropout Prevention and Recovery Work Group. The Work Group is organized and supported by two units at the Department - the Office of Urban and Commissioner's Districts and the Office of Secondary School Services - with additional support from the New England Comprehensive Center. Seventeen urban districts volunteered to participate in the work group over the next several years.

The participating districts are Boston, Brockton, Chelsea, Everett, Fall River, Fitchburg, Haverhill, Holyoke, Lawrence, Leominster, Lowell, Lynn, New Bedford, Pittsfield, Somerville, Springfield and Worcester. Students dropping out of school in these 17 urban districts account for nearly half of the Commonwealth's annual dropouts.

The work group is investigating research and evidence-based national and state dropout prevention and recovery models. The research findings will be used to develop or enhance urban school district dropout prevention and recovery efforts. The work group will also be a forum for planning and sharing promising practices among districts in areas such as alternative education models, transitions, policies and protocols, and student support efforts.

Youth-Focused Summits

As a follow-up to the March 2007 Graduation Rate Summit, five regional summits throughout Massachusetts are currently underway. The regional summits are funded in part from an America's Promise grant and are co-organized by the Department, the Executive Office of Education, the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development, the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, and the Commonwealth Corporation.

The summits are intended to support regional teams in understanding and using youth-related data including student graduation, dropout, youth employment, and state and regional labor market information. Dr. Andrew Sum from the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University developed regional data packets for each of the state's 16 Workforce Investment Boards. The summits will bring together regional partners from the fields of business, community organization, education, government, and workforce to craft a comprehensive youth agenda that addresses dropout prevention and activities that promote college and career readiness. It is expected that more than 1,000 individuals will participate in the Youth-Focused Summits.

Early Warning Indicator Index

The Department is in the process of piloting an Early Warning Indicator Index (EWII) in urban districts to help identify students as early as grade nine who may be at-risk for not graduating on time. In the spring of 2008 the Department used data from the Student Information Management System (SIMS) to identify four indicators that best predict a student's likelihood of not graduating on time. The indicators are a student's:

1. grade 8 attendance rate
2. grade 8 MCAS mathematics score
3. grade 8 MCAS ELA score
4. incidence of mobility (moving in/out of a district or school one or more times) in grades 7 and/or 8

In October 2008, Department staff prepared incoming ninth grade student rosters for 24 urban school districts. The rosters list students in five risk categories that range from a very high risk to low risk of not graduating within four years. Districts have used the EWII for a variety of purposes including establishing a student buddy system, early support service interventions, and family home visits. The Department is preparing to send out a survey this spring to further ascertain how the index is being used, whether changes in the format need to be made, and if school district staff members need technical assistance to use the data. If the pilot is successful, the Department can expand the EWII to all high schools in the Commonwealth.

Strengthening Alternative Education

Alternative Education is an initiative within a public school district, charter school, or educational collaborative established to serve at-risk students whose needs are not being met in the traditional school setting. Alternative Education may operate as a program or as a separate self-contained school; programs may function within a single school or be affiliated with one or more schools or school districts. Students who may benefit from an Alternative Education include those who are pregnant/parenting, truant, suspended or expelled, returned dropouts, delinquent, or students who are not meeting local promotional requirements.

The Department continues to work to enhance the field of Alternative Education across the Commonwealth through annual trainings including regional networking events and state conferences. The Department recently released an Alternative Education promising practices and FAQ document. In the 2007-08 school year, the Department added an Alternative Education data element to SIMS to increase knowledge about Alternative Education in Massachusetts through new methods. The increased capacity in SIMS will provide the Department important student-level information within each Alternative Education program/school. The Department will also use these data to increase targeted technical assistance and to promote and replicate promising practices in the Commonwealth.

Next Steps

I will provide a copy of the report of the Graduation and Dropout Prevention and Recovery Commission to the Board in May. In addition, I will periodically update the Board on these various initiatives and their impact in helping to increase the number of students who graduate from high school and reduce the dropout rate.

We are committed to strengthening the capacity of schools to engage all students in learning so that they meet high standards of performance and graduate from high school well prepared for the future. Our initiatives on dropout prevention and recovery, Alternative Education, and related topics, under the leadership of Associate Commissioner John Bynoe, Stafford Peat, and others, and in collaboration with school and community partners, are a vital part of our work. We look forward to discussing these issues with the Board.

Enclosures:

	Press Release
	2007-08 High School Dropout Report
	Members of the Graduation and Dropout Prevention and Recovery Commission