Wiscasset High School’s Dropout Prevention Committee is working on reducing the dropout rate and improving the graduation rate, said committee member Deb Taylor.
Taylor, who has been the principal at WHS since the fall of 2011, said the dropout and graduation rates “are closely connected to each other. I feel very confident that some of the issues that result in a student dropping out, if resolved or minimized, it would have the effect of improving the graduation rate.”
Though the two rates are connected, “it is possible to not graduate on time and not be a dropout,” Taylor said. “They are not inversely related to each other.”
According to the Maine Department of Education’s Date Warehouse website, in the 2010-11 school year, the dropout rate and graduation rate at WHS were 11.5 percent and 61.8 percent, respectively. Those rates were 5.7 percent and 78.2 percent in 2008-09, the last school year before WHS became a part of Sheepscot Valley RSU 12.
The website defines graduation rate as “the percentage of students in a given group of students (or cohort) who start high school at the same time and graduate within four years of starting.”
“I’m not excited about the time mandate” for a successful graduation, Taylor said. The rates on the DOE’s website is an “on-time graduation rate” and people often drop the first two words when discussing the rate, she said.
Not all students will graduate in four years for a number of reasons, Taylor said. One such reason is that students that transfer into WHS after grade 9 sometimes do not have enough credits for their year in school.
“There are a fair number of students that come to us that are already credit deficient,” Taylor said. Interventions are in place at WHS to identify students with troubles and help them before they fall behind, but for students transferring in “we haven’t had that chance,” she said.
The number of students that transfer in and out of WHS has increased. Taylor said there appears to be a correlation between that mobility and a reduced chance of graduating on time, she said.
The class of 2009 had 45 transfers in and out of the school during its four years, and the class of 2011 had 84, according to Taylor.
Some students also make a choice to stay in school for a fifth year or leave school to pursue a credential through adult education, Taylor said. “We are welcoming to students who choose to be here for a fifth or sixth year if that’s what is best for them.”
Working on issues that contribute to dropouts would not only help retain students, but directly contribute to them graduating on time, Taylor said.
“We are very focused on creating a K-12 dropout prevention initiative,” Taylor said. The committee will be looking closely at current data to determine what indicators put kids at risk for dropping out and while there is a lot of data for national trends, they want to find indicators that are specific to WHS, she said.
“I see [data collection] starting at kindergarten screening” and continuing as the students go through their school careers, Taylor said. Intervention teams in place at each school in the RSU quickly get a clear picture of students’ school and home lives, and the challenge will be streamlining the connection between the teams, she said.
Taylor said another challenge the committee is facing is that “our data right now that is that specific is tied to student names.” The amount of students in the school is so small that describing certain pathways could identify certain students, she said.
Taylor said she and the school’s guidance department will be looking at the data for trends, and she will be reporting those findings during future meetings.
The Dropout Prevention Committee’s meetings are open to the public. The next meeting will be at Wiscasset High School Nov. 6 at 2:30 p.m.
