Mount Vernon High School's Dropout Rate Third Highest in the County

Although has the third highest dropout rate in Fairfax County, school administrators are taking action to keep kids in school.

Those actions include forming a committee to examine cases of at-risk students and better tracking of former students.

Mount Vernon High School has a 9.2 percent dropout rate, the third highest rate among high schools in the Fairfax County Public Schools system, according to recent statistics issued by the Virginia Department of Education. Mount Vernon High School’s on-time graduation rate for the class of 2011 is 87.5 percent.

Here is a breakdown of graduation rates for the Mount Vernon High School class of 2011:

• Females: 92.7 percent
• Males: 82.9 percent
• Black: 86.6 percent
• Hispanic: 80.2 percent
• White: 92.1 percent
• Asian: 96.2 percent
• Students with disabilities: 85.3 percent
• Economically disadvantaged: 87.4 percent
• Homeless: 80 percent

Overall, 91.4 percent of Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) students from the class of 2011 graduated on time. This figure exceeds the state average of 86.6 percent by 4.8 percentage points and is up slightly from 91.2 percent for the class of 2010.

Taking Action

Mount Vernon High School Principal Nardos King acknowledges that although the drop-out rate is high, her school has different needs and challenges than other schools in Fairfax County.

“When you say we’re the third highest rate, you know, you look at the challenge index and I’m supposed to be at the second to the bottom on anything that’s based on the challenge index,” she said.

King says some of her older students who work to support their families are also at high risk of dropping out.

“Something we’ve come across, with the economy the way it is, some of our older students … they’ve got to work,” she explained. “They try the education thing because they know that that’s what’s right for them, but then they have the overwhelming sense of, 'I have to help my family out,' and then they leave to get a job.”

The students most at risk are those with chronic attendance issues, King said. Thanks to a Promise Neighborhoods Grant, King and her staff will be able to further assist students with chronic attendance issues.

“We believe those are the students who leave on the most part because they’re disinterested in school; they’re not engaged,” she said. “We’re paying attention to every student in our school, where they are, and trying to put interventions in place before they get to the level that they want to drop out of school because we don’t want any of our students to drop out of school. If Mount Vernon High School isn’t the right placement for them, then we want to find a program within Fairfax County that has a rich amount of programs that can address the different learning styles or learning needs of students.”

Efforts at Better Tracking

King said students who withdraw from MVHS and who don’t enroll at another school anywhere else are counted in the drop out rate. She also explained that there were a few cases where students who withdrew and enrolled in schools in other states were accidentally counted in the drop out rate. She emphasized that the school does follow-up with students who leave MVHS to make sure they’re enrolled in school elsewhere.

“Some of the data that was presented to us last year for the drop-out rate caused us to realize that we need to do a better job of tracking our students when they leave us,” she said. “We put things in place to make sure that we track every student that leaves our school whether it’s by choice or because they withdraw. We do follow ups and make sure they’re enrolled somewhere else in school."

PTSA Involvement

King stresses that engaging parents of at-risk students is an important part of the equation.

One of the ways she wants to engage parents is to encourage them to join the PTSA.

“We’ve got to get the parents of the kids who need it the most to join the PTA so that they feel a connection to the school and feel that we are here to advocate for their children’s success,” she said. “We hope that the PTA can help us reach out to more parents to help build the partnership between home and school.”

PTSA President Jeanette Kraynak says that the PTSA wants to take a proactive role in helping students and teachers this year, but funding is necessary for them to go about their goals.

"The first thing I need to do is raise money so I could go to the teachers and ask, 'What do you need?,'" she explained. "[Our plans are] in the infancy stages, I see us making an impact by spring. If we can raise money for an all-night grad party, we can raise money for education."

An At-Risk Student Committee

This year, King has formed a committee consisting of assistant principals, the school psychologist, and the school social worker to examine cases of at-risk students. If an at-risk student stops coming to school, King and her team will bring in the student and parents to explore why the student is not coming to school.

King explained, “Some of the research shows that kids who are having issues academically are the ones that are more or less willing to drop out and give up, and we’ve just got to find ways as a school to make sure that we catch those gaps.”