Lynch wants to make school mandatory until 18

[CNHT]

Foster's had it too:

aturday, February 17, 2007
Fewer students dropping out of school in N.H.

By LARRY CLOW
Democrat Staff Writer
DOVER ? The number of Granite State students dropping out of high school has decreased by about 150 students in the last year, according to the latest data released today by the state Department of Education.

During the 2005-2006 school year, 2,146 students dropped out of high school, compared to 2,306 who dropped out the year before. According to the Department of Education, 3.2 percent of students dropped out in 2005-2006, down from 3.4 percent the year before and from 3.8 percent in the 2003-2004 school year. The annual drop-out rate is the percentage of students who drop out during a one-year period.

"Although even one dropout is cause for concern, this reduction in the dropout rate is a step in the right direction," said Department of Education Commissioner Lyonel Tracey in a statement. Tracey added that Gov. John Lynch's proposal to increase the compulsory education age from 16 to 18, along with more alternative education programs, will help to further decrease the state's dropout rate.

Strafford County had the third-highest dropout rate among counties in the state, with 14.8 percent of students dropping out. Other county rates are: Grafton at 9.2 percent; Rockingham at 9.7 percent; Merrimack at 9.9 percent; Cheshire at 11.7 percent; Belknap at 12.4 percent; Coos at 12.5 percent; Hillsborough at 13.3 percent; Carroll at 16 percent and Sullivan at 17.2 percent.

In Dover, the number of students who dropped out decreased from 54 in 2004-2005 to 53 in 2005-2006. In Somersworth, the number of students who dropped out declined from 50 during the 2004-2005 school year to 21 during the 2005-2006 school year.

Karen Soule, superintendent of SAU 56, which includes Somersworth and Rollinsford, said she is very much encouraged by the latest data, but added a lot of work remains.

"We are making changes and looking at alternatives for students," she said. "We're trying to think outside the box for students for whom a traditional high school education doesn't seem to work.

"We're really trying to look at a variety of options. The more options we have, the more opportunities we'll have for kids to be successful," she said.

But for all the successes, Soule said there are some students who might not be reached by such programs.

"For some students, there are issues outside of school beyond our control," she said. "Those are the kids my heart reaches out to. We do everything we can, but I'm not sure we can reach them all. But you never give up."

While Spaulding High School's dropout rate dropped about one percent, Rochester Assistant Superintendent Kent Hemingway said there is still work to be done to improve students' success rates.

He said with 92 students dropping out of school in 2005-2006, "We still have a long way to go."

The many initiatives at Spaulding are starting to make a difference in students' academic success, including many students taking advantage of receiving college credit for certain courses through Project Running Start, a mentoring program, and the PLATO credit recovery system. School officials also have pointed to the Freshmen Academy, a project that aims to provide smaller learning communities for first-year students and after-school tutoring; important approaches to lowering the dropout rate.

"These are things that we're at the forefront with," Hemingway added.

Dropout totals for 2005-2006 in other local districts include: Farmington Senior High School, 22 students, up from 14 students in 2004-2005; Oyster River High School, 10 students, up from five students in 2004-2005; Newmarket Junior-Senior High School, eight students, down from 13 students in 2004-2005; Portsmouth High School, 23 students, down from 31 students in 2004-2005; Kingswood Regional High School, 19 students, down from 40 students in 2004-2005; and Nute High School, 11 students, up from nine students in 2004-2005.

[KurtDaBear]

Kicking this old thread back to life, in light of the new statistics. Handy to know. I'm sure Lynch has a pet bill on this issue, waiting in the shadows somewhere.

http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Public+school+dropouts+declined+again+last+year&articleId=fed35616-bdcd-45e0-836f-1df69f449064

Public school dropouts declined again last year


The dropout percentage rates by county in 2005-06 were: Grafton 9.2, Rockingham 9.7, Merrimack 9.9, Cheshire 11.7, Belknap 12.4, Coos 12.5, Hillsborough 13.3, Strafford 14.8, Carroll 16.0 and Sullivan 17.2.

Individual schools rates can be found on the DOE Web site at http://www.ed.state.nh.us/education/data/DropoutsAndGraduates.htm.

Is there a discernible statistical correlation between district funding levels and district drop-out rates?

[CNHT]

http://forum.soulawakenings.com/index.php?topic=7197.msg141375#msg141375

This guy gets it.. praise him.

[tracysaboe]

Could you sue the government schools for preditory pricing under the fascist anti-trust laws?

Tracy

Kidding, of course.

[CNHT]

Could you sue the government schools for preditory pricing under the fascist anti-trust laws?

Tracy

Kidding, of course.

This is one step of his three part plan...the other two are mandatory kindergarten and preschools.

[Rosie the Riveter]

mandatory kindergarten and preschools.

[CNHT]

mandatory kindergarten and preschools.

I second that emotion. AND I hope if this ever came to pass, parents would DEFY it to the death.
Can you imagine truant officers arriving at someone's home and ripping their 3 year old away from their parents????

How bad would that look for these people?

[forsytjr]

I second that emotion. AND I hope if this ever came to pass, parents would DEFY it to the death.

Most wouldn't since it would be "free".  If they made it mandatory for all, then us homeschoolers would be camped out with our shotguns waiting for them to come.  But if they only made it "free", most people would send their kids willingly and happily.  Sad but true.

[error]

That's how we got government education in the first place: first they made it free, then when most people had willingly given their children up to the system, they made it compulsory, to get as many of the holdouts as they could.