While the 2014-15 graduation classes at Live Oak and Ann Sobrato high schools recorded sparkling percentages for students earning their diploma on time, state data revealed unflattering results at Morgan Hill Unified School District’s alternative school.
School officials, however, defended practices at Central High School, despite registering a 43.2 percent graduation rate and a 20.3 percent dropout rate, according to a May 17 release of data by the California Department of Education. District staff blamed the state’s rating system for the low marks at Central.
“Central graduation rates are not reflective of the nature of the program,” Superintendent Steve Betando said. “Many of the students enter Central for individualized assistance and smaller classes after having some life difficulties which set them back.”
Enrollment can range from six weeks to one year at Central as students recoup academic credits before returning to either LOHS or Sobrato, Betando explained.
“Other students will get enrolled at Central as a junior or senior and finish their diploma at the school,” he continued. “There is a reason that Central is called an alternative school, and varied schedules, instructional techniques and different paths to graduation are indicative of that reason.”
School officials commended the work being done at Central under new principal Vera Gomes with a focus on Career Technical Education. Relevance and pathways into the workforce and post high school technical training is gaining momentum and MHUSD is keeping more and more Central High students in the game and getting a diploma, according to district staff.
The state data, submitted by the local districts, follows a four-year cohort of students through their four years of high school. It is released each May by the CDE. In this case, the students were freshmen in the 2011-2012 school year. At Central, 32 of 74 students from that cohort graduated on time, according to CDE statistics.
“Our goal is to enable each student to graduate prepared for their life choice into college, technical school, or straight into a career,” said Glen Webb, MHUSD’s Director of Curriculum/Instruction. “The graduation rate does not tell us how we are doing on that.”
As a district, MHUSD’s 2014-15 class recorded an 88.8 percent graduation rate (555 of 625 student grads) and a 5.8 percent dropout rate (36 students). Those marks eclipsed Santa Clara County (83.6 grad/11.1 dropout) and statewide (82.3 grad/10.7 dropout) for the same 2014-15 student cohort group.
Even more impressive were the percentages at Sobrato, which graduated 286 of 306 students for a 93.5 percent grad rate with 15 students not earning a diploma (4.9 dropout rate) and at LOHS, where 237 of 244 students graduated for a 97.1 percent grad rate and 2.5 percent dropout rate.
“We are very pleased with the high percentage,” Betando said. “We need to keep in mind, however, that graduation rates are just one indication of the district’s success and even those numbers, although excellent for us, can be misleading if you don’t have a clear understanding of how they are calculated.”
Local school officials believe there is a flaw in the state’s system because the tracking of students, who were at one time enrolled at a MHUSD high school but are no longer with the district for a variety of reasons such as moving out of the area, can be tricky.
“This is a challenge when we are dependent on the new school to inform us of a student’s enrollment,” Betando said. “As the system is now, those students count against the district’s overall graduation rate even if they’ve graduated elsewhere.”
The state’s grad/dropout rates are also broken down into subgroups of students, paying mind to what is known as the achievement gap (the disparity in statistical information, whether grad/dropout rates or state test scores, between White and Hispanic students in particular).
In Morgan Hill, 20 of those students who didn’t earn their high school diploma and were flagged as dropouts were in the Hispanic subgroup, which had an 83.9 graduation rate and 7 percent dropout rate. Of the 285 Hispanic students in the 2014-15 cohort, 239 graduated on time, according to the CDE database. Comparably, in the White subgroup of 257 students, the graduation rate was 92.2 percent with 13 labeled as dropouts for a 5.1 percent rate.
Hispanic subgroup statistics for Santa Clara County were 83.6 grad/11.1 dropout, while White subgroup rates were 92.5 grad/4.5 dropout. Statewide dates for Hispanic students were 78.5 grad/12.6 dropout, while White students were 88 grad/7.4 dropout.
Looking back to the previous graduating class, MHUSD’s 2013-14 cohort group compiled an 89.2 percent graduation rate with a 7.2 percent dropout rate. The Hispanic subgroup held an 84.4 percent grad rate with a 10.9 percent dropout rate, while the White subgroup recorded a 93.1 grad rate and a 4.4 percent dropout rate.
Morgan Hill Unified, 88.8 grad/5.8 dropout
Santa Clara County, 83.6 grad/11.1 dropout
Statewide, 82.3 grad/10.7 dropout
