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County dropout rate increases Efforts to keep students help in some places, hurt Medford's stats By VICKI GUARINO A growing number of Jackson County students are leaving high school without a diploma, according to newly released state figures. Local educators say aggressive efforts to keep students in school are both the solution and the problem. Led by rising numbers of dropouts at the two largest high schools -- North and South Medford -- the overall number of Jackson County dropouts rose last year to 7.74 percent, up from 6.44 percent. Dropout rate tallies for the 1998-99 school year were released by the state Department of Education on Wednesday. For Oregon as a whole, last year's quitting rate was the lowest in three years. The department report said 6.59 percent of high school students quit during the last school year, down from 6.9 percent in the 1997-98 academic year. At Jackson County high schools, administrators and advisers say the statistics highlight the efforts of student-retention programs. Eagle Point High School, for instance, improved from having one of the highest dropout rates in the state. Nearly 11 percent of the school's 1,100 students left in 1997-98, but in the last year the rate improved to 9.72 percent. Still much too high, says academic adviser Samantha Steele, "but I didn't think we were going to see such a quick result from our efforts." But programs to hold onto students seem to make matters worse at Medford schools. The problem doesn't relate to students, but to statistical formulas used to report attendance, administrators say. Both North and South staff aggressively have tracked down dropouts and lured them back to class with a variety of alternative programs, including night school. But many of these students repeatedly drop out and are cajoled back to school, says North Principal Don Lacey. Every time the student leaves, he or she is counted as another dropout. So instead of one student becoming a single dropout, the student might become three or four dropouts in the school tally. "There is a population of our students that churns out there," says Medford administrator Dan Zaklan. "We are absolutely going out and getting every kid that is out there." Efforts were stepped up this year with the appointment of one staff person to go out in the community and track down the absentees. As a result, says Lacey, "Next year might even look worse because of the effort to keep bringing kids back to school." But North and South weren't alone in reporting an increase in dropout rates. Phoenix High School, for example, moved from having a below-average dropout rate to one well above both the state and county averages. Last year, 73 of Phoenix High's 837 students dropped out. Rates increased in every Jackson County high school except Ashland, Eagle Point and Crater. Crater once had one of the highest dropout rates in the state, but it turned around that trend to report one of the lowest rates in 1997-98. In the 1998-99 year, the rate was cut again. Crater, and more recently Eagle Point, have launched programs to more closely monitor students -- especially those who are falling behind academically. Eagle Point offered special classes for the first time last summer to help students catch up. "If a kid is behind and we don't do anything, of course they are going to drop out," says Steele. "They feel too far gone." Eagle Point also has started tracking down students who have repeated absences. "We're wearing out our attendance coordinator, but it's worthwhile," says Steele. According to state Department of Education findings, the most frequent reason given by high schoolers who dropped out was that they were too far behind in class credits needed to graduate. Other reasons included jobs, poor home life and lack of parents' support for education. Minority students, except for Asians, had higher dropout rates than whites. Almost 15 percent of Hispanic students dropped out in the 1998-99 year statewide. Schools Superintendent Stan Bunn said he was pleased the rate is decreasing at the same time the state's academic requirements and student test scores are rising. "It's heartening the rate went down because with the push for higher academic standards, some people worried that would push more kids out of school," Bunn said. Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA