A study looking at how to cut the state’s high school dropout rates has concluded that dropouts in five of Colorado’s largest districts share characteristics — failing one or more semester course as freshmen, chronic absenteeism and at least one suspension in four years.
Roughly 15,000 Colorado students every year fail to complete high school. About 100 high schools account for 70 percent of all of the state’s dropouts, according to a study by Johns Hopkins University that examined schools in Denver, Pueblo, Adams 12, Aurora and Jefferson County.
Those districts have the largest numbers of dropouts.
The study specifically examined academic careers of dropouts from the 2006-07 school year, looking for behavioral warning signs several years before they dropped out.
• More than 75 percent failed one or more courses in ninth grade.
• A large majority displayed patterns of chronic absenteeism.
• Nearly half had been suspended at least once during the previous four years.
Many of the same risk factors appear at the middle school level.
“What it tells us is that we can actually use tangible behavior information to identify and intervene with students who are at risk of dropping out much earlier,” said Chris Watney, director of the Colorado Children’s Campaign, one of three groups in the Colorado Graduates Initiative working to increase the graduation rate.
On Friday, indicators for genders and from rural schools will be released.
Jefferson County Superintendent Cindy Stevenson said the study has helped her district understand who were the dropouts and why they were not coming back.
Jefferson County is the only district in the state that has set up an Office of Dropout Prevention and Recovery. Last year, the program dealt with 400 students who were on the verge of dropping out.
“Once you know the predictors, you have to go in and try to change those,” Stevenson said. “For us it is ninth-grade failure. The immediacy of ninth-grade failure rates is huge. We need to get them quickly, quickly in credit recovery or some other program.”
Jeremy P. Meyer: 303-954-1367 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com
Initiative looks at dropout prevention
The Colorado Graduates Initiative, the Colorado Department of Education and Gov. Bill Ritter, who set a goal of cutting the dropout rate in half in 10 years, will convene the second Colorado Dropout Prevention Summit on Friday at Arvada High School.
Among other things, the meeting is intended to share information about advances in best education practices and ways to improve and speed district efforts to boost graduation rates and recover dropouts.
