Sweetwater Graduation Rate Rises, Dropouts Decline

An increasing percentage of California students are graduating within four years of entering high school, according to new state data released Wednesday.

"It's heading in the right direction," State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said on a conference call announcing the high school graduation and dropout rates for the Class of 2011.

This is the second year the state's rates have been based on a state data system—CALPADS—that tracks individual students over their academic careers. Previous systems relied on group estimates.

The new data shows 76.3 percent of California high school students graduated within four years in 2011, up 1.5 percent from the previous class. 

In IB, Mar Vista High School's graduation rate fell less than one percent but at 86.1 percent continues to perform above district, county and state averages.

At 94.3 percent, Otay Ranch High School had the highest graduation rate in the Sweetwater Union High School District.

About 78 percent of San Diego County high school students graduate within four years.

Torlakson said though the numbers are not where state officials would like them to be ultimately, they are "good news" in the face of terrible budgets, turmoil and uncertainty, crowded classrooms, a shorter school year and eliminated summer school in some districts.

"We'd like to see the numbers climb higher and faster," Torlakson said.

The state's dropout rate, too, is headed in the right direction, Torlakson said, dropping just over two percent to 14.4 percent in the Class of 2011.

"Our research shows that chronic absence from school, even as early as kindergarten, is a strong indicator of whether a child will drop out of school later,” Torlakson said in a statement. “The dropout rate shows there’s still much work to be done, particularly to address the needs of disadvantaged and minority students. We must build on our work with parents and communities in the earliest years to pave the way for kids to succeed in school.” 

About one out of 10 San Diego County high school students drop out, including  8.3 percent in the Sweetwater Union High School District. Both the county and SUHSD dropout rates declined between 2009-10 and 2010-11 (see chart).

The dropout rate reflects students who are no longer enrolled in California schools and who are not known to have transferred out of state.

With CALPADS, state education officials are able to track students as they move throughout the state—whether or not they let their original home school know they are leaving. But if students leave the state without notifying their last in-state school, they can be shown as a dropout.

Students who are still enrolled in school beyond four years, pursuing a GED or in a non-diploma special education program are not included as dropouts, nor are students that left high school before 9th grade.

Statewide gains were seen among Hispanic and African American students with increases of 2.2 and 2.3 percentage points respectively.

The graduation rate for socioeconomically disadvantaged students climbed from 68.1 to 70 percent.

Local English learners at Mar Vista High School continue to perform above district, county and state graduation rates, but fell more than two percent from the 2009-10 average. Across California English learners graduated at a rate 3.8 percentage points higher than 2009-10.

For a complete list of graduation rate data by race and other demographics visit the California Department of Education's DataQuest website.