1 in 10 schools are ‘dropout factories’. Montana ranked 31st.

It’s a nickname no principal could be proud of: "Dropout Factory," http://hosted.ap.org/specials/interactives/wdc/dropout/index.html?SITE=AP a high school where no more than 60% of the students who start as freshmen make it to their senior year. That dubious distinction applies to more than one in 10 high schools across America.

By Nancy Zuckerbrod, Associated Press

Full Story: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-10-30-dropout-factories_N.htm

Montana 2006 Summary: http://www2.edtrust.org/edtrust/summaries2006/Montana.pdf

***

Locating and Transforming the
Low Performing High Schools
Which Produce the Nation’s
Dropouts

Robert Balfanz
Center for Social Organization of
Schools
Johns Hopkins University

Full Presentation: http://www.all4ed.org/files/Balfanz.pdf

***

Tacoma schools dispute dropout numbers

KRIS SHERMAN; The News Tribune

A report released Monday from Johns Hopkins University researchers categorized Tacoma’s five comprehensive high schools as “dropout factories” – schools where at least 40 percent of freshmen don’t make it to senior year.

But local school officials – backed up by statistics tallied by the state – dispute the conclusions of the study. The difference may stem from the way the national study estimated graduation rates and who Tacoma counts as a high school senior.

Full Story: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/191062.html