HUNTINGTON -- Cabell County's high school Class of 2009 has shrunk by 203 students -- or more than 20 percent -- since its freshman year two years ago, according to new enrollment records reported two weeks ago.
At least 85 -- and perhaps more -- were dropouts, Cabell County Schools officials say.
What's worse, 56 of those students gave up on high school practically before getting started by dropping out during their freshmen year, a problem that has plagued Cabell County for a number of years, said Geraldine Sawrey, assistant superintendent over school improvement. But, she said, there is hope, thanks to the county's 2-year-old Freshman Academy.
Last year, the number of dropouts at both Cabell County high schools fell compared with the year before, most significantly at Huntington High. Sawrey believes that trend will continue as the Freshman Academy, which focuses on helping prepare ninth graders for high-school learning, catches the most at-risk students before they make the decision that could change their lives forever.
Some dropouts earn their GED and go on to lead fairly successful lives, but statistics say they are the minority. According to a Civic Enterprises national summit held in May 2007, dropouts are more likely than high school graduates to be unemployed, in poor health, living in poverty, on public assistance and become single parents with children who drop out of high school. Former West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise, now the president of the Alliance for Excellent Education, said the pitfalls for dropouts also are felt by society as a whole.
The organization released numbers indicating that the state would save more than $55 million in health care costs for each class of dropouts over the course of their lifetime had they completed high school. West Virginia households also would have about $634 million more in accumulated wealth if all heads of households had graduated from high school.
"All of us pay the price, not just the dropout," Wise said. "(We) need these new members of the work force prepared to support the nation in a 21st century world that is becoming more and more competitive."
Addressing the epidemic
The problem, many agree, is twofold. First, allowing students to drop out at age 16 with parent or guardian consent -- the law in West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky -- must change. During the past couple of years, there has been talk among government officials concerning new legislation that would raise that age to 18. But State Superintendent of Education Steve Paine and Gov. Joe Manchin both agree with local educators that raising the age will only be a bandage on a gaping wound.
"We have to redefine alternative education," Paine said. "We understand there are some students where school isn't working for them."
Paine and others said that simply raising the age only makes students go to school and doesn't address why students are dropping out. He said high school education needs an overhaul along with raising the age.
"We are obligated to take a look at the individual learning needs of every child," Paine said.
Manchin acknowledged that there have been talks about raising the compulsory age to 18, but not without providing the right funding and resources to the Department of Education.
"We would have to have the resources available and a plan in place to ensure that students aren't simply going through the motions for another two years," Manchin's spokesperson Matt Turner said via e-mail. "We would want them to acquire the skills they need to succeed and to be able to step up to the challenges that are preventing them from succeeding."
Huntington High School Assistant Principal Mark Rapp said schools haven't kept up with the technological and research-based advances that students are using outside of class everyday. He said it's no wonder students lose interest.
"Our society has changed, and public education is just sort of staying the same," Rapp said.
Some students drop out because they haven't been able to keep up with their classmates. When a teen falls behind his or her friends, they may have trouble making new friends and feel out of place.
At Huntington High, there are evening classes for juniors and seniors who find themselves nearing graduation but not having all of the requirements. For example, Rapp said some seniors in the class of 2008 are taking English 11 in the evening while taking English 12 during the school day. Allowing these students to make up the work, he said, helps them graduate on time.
The factors that prompt many teens to drop out don't appear all of a sudden when students become freshmen. Paine believes the decision weighs on students' minds as early as sixth grade.
"If you wait until high school, you are too late. This kind of thing emerges very early on," Paine said. "It's incumbent upon us to identify (at-risk students) as early as possible."
Even then, the teens who are most at risk aren't always the easiest to identify. Paine estimates that more than 70 percent are students who simply lose interest and often go overlooked as at-risk because they often aren't failing.
Where we stand
Although West Virginia doesn't have the worst dropout rate in the nation, it is high enough to garner attention from Wise, the former governor. An article released in September by his organization, the Alliance for Excellent Education, said the state could be and should be graduating more students. In 2005-2006, state data showed that the state had 3,361 dropouts.
"Only 72 percent of West Virginia's students graduated from high school on time (as of 2004)," the Alliance for Excellence Education article said. "And about 33 percent of students in West Virginia who started ninth grade (this year) read so far below grade level that they are at serious risk of not graduating in four years."
Cabell County is near the top of the list among the state's 55 counties when it comes to dropout percentage. Since 1997-98, the county has never had a dropout rate of less than 3.1 percent in any year. In 2005-06, the last year complete state data was available, Cabell County had the fourth highest dropout rate with 3.9 percent (tied with Braxton, Calhoun and Lincoln counties).
Wise and other officials have said the original No Child Left Behind legislation focused on elementary and middle schools and left high schools out of the mix. But, according to an Oct. 29 Associated Press article, House and Senate proposals to renew the 5-year-old No Child Left Behind law would give high schools more federal money and put more pressure on improving graduation performance.
A winning solution
Cabell County's Freshman Academy is just one tool in the battle to keep teens in school. Its goal, Sawrey said, is to "make sure every student who enters high school finishes high school."
The program divides the freshmen class into groups of about 150 students, all of whom have four teachers in common. It's similar to the middle school concept, but Sawrey said the big difference is the freshmen also are learning how to be successful high school students.
"Not all students come to high school ready to be high school learners," she said.
The Freshman Academy concept was adopted from a Virginia high school that battled high dropout rates for decades. The program has been in use there for 15 years, and it has decreased the dropout rates dramatically. Sawrey believes the Freshman Academy will do the same in Cabell County.
Another key is stressing the importance of a diploma to parents and guardians, who, if their child is under 18, must consent to them dropping out. There are a number of reasons parents or guardians allow their child to make that decision, though. Research indicates that sometimes the parents themselves were dropouts and they fail to see the link between a high school diploma and success in life.
Some parents who dropped out were able to find jobs in coal mining or manufacturing plants, but many of those labor-intensive positions have disappeared or become computerized.
"We're not mining coal by hand anymore," Paine said. "We're well beyond the industrial age and into the information age."
But educators note that success doesn't necessarily require pushing all students toward college. There also is a growing need for workers in skilled positions such as electricians and plumbers. But the state isn't churning out as many students for those fields as in years past.
One reason is the loss of enrollment in the vocational and technology schools. The Cabell County Career Technology Center has seen its enrollment drop steadily since the turn of the century. Administrators want so badly for it to succeed that they may look to bring some of the classes back into Huntington High or Cabell Midland.
The real answer, however, may be to offer school full time at the Technology Center rather than busing students in for a half day of classes.
"So many of our students are not college material, but we're still pushing everybody to the universities," Rapp said. "We need to utilize the Career Tech Center more. We need to let (students) know there are other outlets."
In conjunction with that, Rapp said the correlation between college and success overwhelms many students who know term papers and course credits aren't for them.
Rapp said he's even open to flex scheduling and some online courses if it means at-risk students graduate with a high school diploma.
"We have to adapt to them instead of them adapting to us," he said.
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