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The Herald-Sun
October 30, 2007   4:46 pm

It’s no secret that America has a big problem with high school dropouts. Even so, a new study conducted by Johns Hopkins University for the Associated Press offers a startling snapshot of just how big the problem is.

Using data to track senior classes for three years in a row — 2004, 2005 and 2006 — researchers found that one in 10 American high schools are little more than "dropout factories’ that graduate 60 percent or fewer students within four years. There are 1,700 such schools throughout the nation, including, unfortunately, two in Durham.

Durham’s Northern and Southern high earned the dubious distinction by graduating 60 percent and 58.9 percent of their students respectively. In all, 77 of our state’s 332 high schools fall into that category. And the state’s percentage of such schools — 23.2 percent — is sixth worst in the nation.

That’s a bitter pill for state education leaders who work overtime to improve schools. And while the state has made strides in academics and accountability, it continues to struggle, like many others, to graduate more students.

With that said, we know there will be challenges to the Hopkins report because determining what constitutes a dropout varies greatly from state to state. (more…)

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