Dropout Prevention
Dropout Prevention
California faces a dropout crisis that poses a significant threat to public safety. An estimated one in three California high school students does not graduate from high school on time, although California does not yet have a reliable data system to measure graduation rates. Each year’s dropouts cost California $46 billion over their lifetimes. The impact starts immediately: dropouts cost California over $1 billion in juvenile crime costs alone.
High school dropouts are three and one-half times more likely than high school graduates to be arrested, and more than eight times as likely to be in jail or prison. Across the country, 68 percent of state prison inmates do not receive a high school diploma. According to researchers, a 10 percentage point increase in graduation rates reduces murder and assault rates by about 20 percent, which would prevent 500 murders and over 20,000 aggravated assaults in California each year. Keeping kids in school and on the path to graduation is one of the most effective crime-prevention tools around.
Irregular school attendance is an important indicator for dropping out. After all, students don’t just drop out overnight: dropping out is the final step in a process of disengagement, which is often reflected in poor attendance. However, California is one of just seven states that does not collect individualized attendance data, making it far more difficult to identify potential dropouts or schools that are in danger of high dropout rates.
SB 1357 (Steinberg & Alquist), which would promote the collection of individualized student attendance data and the development of an early warning system to identify potential dropouts before it is too late. The measure would expand the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS) to, contingent on federal funding, permit the collection of attendance data and provide incentives for schools to input attendance. It also would state the intent of the Legislature to establish an early warning system for potential dropouts, relying in part on student attendance data, in order to more effectively target interventions.
SB 1148 (Alquist) would establish a definition for chronic truancy, enabling the collection of chronic truancy data. Chronic truancy is an important early warning sign for dropping out. However, while current law states that any child who has three or more unexcused absences from school is truant, the Education Code does not establish the definition of more serious episodes of truancy. Collecting data about chronic truancy will help more effectively identify which students are at highest risk of dropping out and which schools are succeeding in stopping truancy before it turns into a more serious problem.
SB 1301 (Simitian) would promote the evaluation of the long-term impact of educational interventions, in order to identify which interventions are most effective.
SB 1301 would direct the State Board of Education to ensure that permanent pupil records (often referred to as “transcripts”) include each student’s unique pupil identifier. This will help enable local educational agencies to more readily determine the unique history of students when they enroll and better enable the linking of cross-segmental data from preschool through higher education. This measure also may be amended to help ensure that the state effectively implements federal stimulus funding for data collection.
Quality data are essential to help identify potential dropouts and effective interventions. Fortunately, California is moving forward in developing a comprehensive educational database, particularly through CALPADS. Still, without accurate and timely underlying data about student demographics and performance, California will not be able to take full advantage of the systems it is putting into place.
AB 2265 (Salas) would promote an effective educational data system by providing schools and districts with direct funding to help train staff to collect and input data accurately. The State Superintendent for Education has identified as a high priority the need for direct funding to ensure quality educational data.
Law enforcement leaders have long relied on data to identify crime “hot spots.” With these measures, California policymakers and educators also can utilize 21st Century technology to most effectively target their resources for the public good.
