Wentzville Holt  High School called a drop-out factory

November 1, 2007

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the Associated Press and Fox News, as well as several other news agencies, releasing a report on ‘drop out factories’, or schools which produce a less than 60 percent graduation rate, some concerns have been expressed.

And for good reason, some schools do not have the drop out rate implicated in the John Hopkins University report.

For the study, researchers looked at  high-school enrollment statistics from 2004, 2005 and 2006, comparing each school's 12th-grade enrollment with the ninth-grade enrollment four years earlier.

The study did not track the actual graduation of individual students. One researcher said the study is an indicator only and doesn’t directly measure high-school dropout rates. This would have given a more accurate indicator of the schools drop-out rate.

One high school implicated as a ‘drop out factory’ was Wentzville’s Emil E. Holt High. And according to the study, Holt does qualify, with a 56 percent retention rate.

Of course, the only criterion for the study was whether incoming freshman to the school graduated from the school their senior year.

The study does not account for students that transferred schools, relocated to another district or any other rational reason that is neither graduation nor ‘dropping out’.

In the case of Holt High, it was a new school. Holt’s sister school, Timberland High School, was opened during the time the study was measuring graduation rates.

About half of Holt’s student population was transferred to Timberland. However, because these students entered as freshman but did not graduate from Holt exclusively, they were considered drop outs.

An automated phone call from district superintendent, Terry Adams, explained the error to parents.

Other than the Wentzville School District, Normandy, Bayless, and Northwest R-1 school districts have disputed the accuracy of the report. Myfoxstl.com has released an article stating some schools have disputed the results.

Copyright 2007 Neighbors About Town

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