MURRIETA: Superintendent questions dropout numbers

Murrieta leader says issue is complex


When the state released high school dropout numbers in December, results showed that the Murrieta school district had the highest rate in Riverside County.

District officials disputed the number, claiming the data was inaccurate and after another look, the numbers were adjusted by the state office of education, dropping the rate from 29.8 percent to 12.4 percent.

While he was happy to see the correction, Murrieta Valley Unified School District Superintendent Stan Scheer was left wondering just how accurate the numbers were.

And while Scheer isn't trying to absolve school districts of blame when students drop out, he wants to make sure people realize that when a student quits school, it's not always the educators' fault.

"It's a bigger issue than just what a school can provide," Scheer said. "Dropouts are symptomatic of many things."

Discrepancies in Murrieta's numbers had to do mainly with the adult school, where data showed about 330 dropouts.

The majority of those "dropouts" were actually high school students who took additional classes at the adult school before graduating from the high school where they started, administrators said.

Statistics released Dec. 7 showed 558 dropouts in Murrieta in 2008-09, the most recent reporting period. The adjusted data lowered that number to 229.

The numbers were still higher than the 169 dropouts, and 9.6 percent, reported in 2007-08, but better than the Riverside County and state numbers, which sit at 22 percent.

Riverside County Superintendent Kenn Young said graduation numbers are a better indicator of how schools are doing than dropout numbers.

"I think they're both important," Young said. "In my view, the graduation rate is what we want to focus on."

Young said the two categories are computed using different formulas, so a 22 percent dropout rate does not equate to a 78 percent graduation rate.

In 2008-09, state statistics show Murrieta Valley with a 92 percent graduation rate compared to 80 percent for the county and 79 percent for the state.

Murrieta's Scheer said there are a lot of factors that lead to a student being designated as a dropout. Some leave to get a job, others aren't challenged by school and some start families.

"The whole issue of dropouts tends to be much more complex than what people perceive," Scheer said. "There's a lot of reasons kids drop out of school other than that they didn't like school."

Whatever the reason, Scheer said it's important to keep the number of dropouts as low as possible.

"If students don't get a decent education, they won't have a chance to be competitive in the real world," he said.

Not all students designated as dropouts have left school, administrators said. Young and Scheer both cited the unreliability of the tracking system.

"There are a lot of different factors involved in dropout numbers," Young said. "It get pretty complicated."

One problem that inflates dropout numbers is the inability to track students as they change schools, administrators said.

Although children are given state tracking numbers when they begin school, they are not always used. If a student changes schools, especially if they move to another state, they are often reported as a dropout from the district they left, Scheer said.


