Dropout and Graduation Rates for Columbia Public School

Patricia Avery, a math teacher at Rock Bridge High School, who has taught in the Columbia Public School System for 33 years, has seen teachers and staff take an active approach in combating high school dropout rates.

“About a year ago there was student who wasn’t going to graduate, he wasn’t going to make it for anything and he was headed out of the door,” Avery said. “By some miracle coincidence, this one teacher was standing at the door and said, ‘Where are you going?’ The student said ‘I’m quitting’. The teacher grabbed him and said, ‘No your not,’ and just took him under his wing.The student made it and had a 360 degree grin around his head that night at graduation.”

More and more students like this one are finding success within the Columbia Public School District.
The dropout rate for the Columbia Public School District has declined to a 20-year-low and the graduation rate has reached a five-year-high, according to the district’s annual accountability report card.

For the 2006-2007 school year the dropout rate was 3.6 percent, down from 3.8 percent in the previous school year. Twenty years ago the dropout rate was 7.3 percent. During the 1994-1995 school year the dropout rate reached a 20-year high of 10.47 percent. This rate has decreased each year since that time.

Rates are based on ninth through twelfth grade students who dropout during a given school year.

“I would never have dreamed that [the dropout rates] would have gotten this low, never would have dreamed it,” said Lynn Barnett, assistant superintendent for student support services. “The last couple of years are the only years that we’ve been below 4 percent ever.”

The graduation rate for the 2006-2007 school year was 86.5 percent, which increased from 84.7 percent in the previous year. The graduation rate has risen as the dropout rate has decreased. According to the district’s 2007 report card, 56.4 percent of graduating students went to a four-year college or university; 24.3 percent to a two-year college; and 4.7 percent to a postsecondary (technical) institution.

The 3.6 percent dropout rate is lower than the state’s average of 4.2 percent, while the graduate rate of 86.5 percent exceeds the national average of 69.9 percent.

Programs implemented over the last decade at Rock Bridge and Hickman high schools, as well Douglass high school’s continuing innovative approaches to learning, may be contributing to these improved rates.

“I think we do a good job of really putting a lot of focus on support programs,” said Melissa Melahn, senior counselor at Rock Bridge High School. "We have tried really hard regardless of where the budget is to nourish those programs."

Douglass, which provides non-traditional learning settings for students who have dropped out or struggled in more traditional schools, offers core classes on a block schedule and independent and work-study programs. The work-study programs at Schnuck’s Grocery Store, MBS Textbook Exchange Inc., Missouri Cotton Exchange, Columbia Daily Tribune and Truman Veterans’ Hospital allow students to spend part of their day in a classroom and part earning valuable work experience. This array of options increases the odds that students will find an educational setting that works for them.

Additionally, the Missouri Option Program available at all three schools enables qualifying students to earn their high school diploma by passing the GED test. It was created by the Missouri department of elementary and secondary education as a dropout prevention program.

All of the high schools’ after-school programs, as well Hickman’s and Rock Bridge’s Success Centers, allow teachers more time to focus on the individual needs of students who might be at-risk of dropping out, by lowering student-teacher ratios. Opportunities through these options are available to students who have not been successful during traditional school day, have been suspended from school, have disabilities or have been in legal trouble.

Furthermore, the PLATO Credit Recovery Program benefits students one or two credits short of graduating. The online program gives students a second chance to earn credit for a class they have already taken but did not receive credit for the first time.

Avery feels it takes more than just good programs to help students succeed.

“Even though we offer GED and credit recovery and all these other plans, it comes down to TLC,” Avery said. “It is important that kids are nurtured and that there is a lot invested in them with support staff.”

Student-teacher relationships are critical for students’ successes said Barnett.

These relationships particularly thrive in settings with smaller student-teacher ratios like those found in the high schools’ Success Centers, after-school programs, and Douglass’ independent and work-study programs.

For students to feel cared for and supported within the school community is crucial to the learning and graduation process.

While support programs juxtaposed with student-teacher relationships have inevitably affected dropout and graduation rates, future budget cuts may unavoidably work against these rates. Estimated cuts of $10 million or more in the Columbia Public School Districts annual budget for the 2008-2009 school year will mean less funding for support programs and higher student-teacher ratios.

A few ways these cuts could affect supports for students within the school district include the reduction of outreach counselors, coaches, counselors, after-school activity stipends for teachers and instructional coaches, said Barnett. Definite reductions in these areas are still subject to vote.

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