Information Services

2004-05 Dropout Summary - Initial Data

To:	Superintendents
Copy:	District SIMS Contact
From:	Paula O'Sullivan
Date:	11/14/05

Dear Superintendent: I would like to direct your attention to the 2004-05 Dropout Data Summary Report that is currently available on the Security Portal and can be accessed with the "SIMS Data Transmission" role. In addition to the 2004-05 report that is available, reports for the 2002-03 and 2003-04 school years are also available. These data were used in our two most recent public dropout reports. The 2004-05 report currently contains three pieces of data for your review. 1. The 2004-05 enrollment for grades 9-12 for your district and school(s) 2. The number of students that were considered to be summer dropouts 3. The number of students that were reported to be end-of-year dropouts The enrollment data and the end-of-year dropout data were reported in SIMS. We provided this information back to you in summary form at the time of collection and allowed for corrections to the data at that time. Therefore, we cannot accept changes to those two data points at this time. If you need to update your summer dropouts from the Missing Students Report, please contact the Department via the information below. Please be aware that your district data may vary slightly from your high school data, even if there is only one high school in your district. If there were students who dropped out the summer after 8th grade, considered to be 9th grade dropouts, they were only assigned to a district, not to a particular high school. Once the Department has processed the October 1st SIMS data from this year we will update this report with three more pieces of data: the number of returned dropouts, the number of final dropouts for the 2004-05 school year and the final dropout rate for the school year. We expect to release this information in the early months of 2006, followed by the public release of the 2004-05 Dropout Report in the spring of 2006. Please remember that you may click on the terms or the dropout numbers in this report for a more detailed explanation or a list of students included. Also, for more detail on dropout calculations please see http://www.doe.mass.edu/infoservices/data/guides/dropouts.html. If you have any questions about the report or your dropout data, please contact Data Collection at 781-338-DATA (3282) or data@doe.mass.edu Thank you, Paula O'Sullivan
Director of Information Services
MA Deptartment of Education
po'sullivan@doe.mass.edu
781-338-3528

Last Updated: November 15, 2005