LA County High School Dropout Rate Jumps in 2010
LOS ANGELES (CBS) — The class of 2010 at Los Angeles County high schools had a 20.3 percent dropout rate, above the statewide figure of 18.2 percent.
The state Department of Education's dropout figures are the first from a new system that tracked students starting from when they began as freshman in 2006-07 and followed them as they left, transferred, and sometimes returned.
71.2 percent of the 133,824 ninth-graders in 2006-07 graduated in Los Angeles County compared to 74.4 percent statewide.
About 8 percent were still enrolled when the data was taken, while the remainder acquired a certificate of completion or finished in special education.
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.
