Riverside County Has More High School Dropouts

The class of 2010 at Riverside County high schools had a 16.7 percent dropout rate, below the statewide figure of 18.2 percent, according to figures released today by the state Department of Education.

The dropout figures are the first from a new system that tracked students beginning when they started ninth grade in the 2006-07 school year and

following them as they left, transferred and sometimes returned.

The more transitory student population could not be accounted for with the old methodology, according to the Department of Education. Education officials stressed that because the methodology is different, the data cannot be compared to previous years’ dropout numbers.

In Riverside County, 76.3 percent of the 33,814 ninth-graders in 2006-07 graduated, compared to 74.4 percent statewide. About 6 percent were still enrolled when the data was taken, while the remainder acquired a certificate of completion or finished in special education.

For ethnic sub-groups:

— black students had a graduation rate of 69 percent and dropout rate of 21.9 percent;

— Asians had a graduation rate of 88.7 percent and a dropout rate of 7.1 percent;

— Hispanics had a graduation rate of 72.4 percent, while 19.6 percent dropped out; and

— white students had a graduation rate of 82.6 percent, and a dropout rate of 12.1 percent.

In the Riverside Unified School District, 78.4 percent of the 3,700 ninth-graders in 2006-07 graduated, while 14.7 percent dropped out.

Rates are generally better at traditional schools because students identified as at-risk for dropping out are often transferred to county-run recovery programs, according to the state Department of Education. If they drop out anyway, it is attributed to the program, not the original school.