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Student poll studies rate of dropouts- Report finds community, teachers are major reasons

The Los Angeles Daily News - August 10, 2007

By Rick Orlov

Tracking one of the biggest educational issues facing Los Angeles, five teams of high school students Friday released results of their own study into why students drop out. 

The findings, from surveys of dozens of students, showed common themes ranging from a lack of engaged teachers and student boredom to frustration and outside community pressures. 

A high dropout rate - anywhere from 25 percent to 50 percent, according to various studies - has plagued the Los Angeles Unified School District. 

At Roosevelt High School, for example, 80 percent of nearly 2,000 ninth-graders surveyed four years ago said they had hopes of going on to college. Four years, later, only 39 of 100 students graduated. Even fewer were able to qualify for college. 

"This is the problem we have been dealing with," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told the students. "We are trying to get information from the school district on how many students drop out. We don't know if they move out of the city or out of the state, if they are going to another school or if they have just dropped out. 

"It's the key to finding out what we need to do to improve our schools." 

Villaraigosa has been at odds with the district for nearly two years, prompting him to back a slate of candidates who now make up a majority on the district's school board. 

The mayor said he believes that the new board is more open to reform measures and looking at different ways to improve the schools. 

The students, all 10th- and 11th-graders, presented their findings as part of a summer program through UCLA's Institute for Democracy, Education and Access examining problems at under-performing schools. 

Director Jeannie Oakes said the institute wanted to look at what causes youths to drop out because information indicates 50 percent of ninth-graders are gone by the time they should be in the 12th grade. 

She said only one-fourth of those who graduate from inner-city schools are qualified for college. 

Villaraigosa said more needs to be done to not only track dropouts, but convince them to return to school. 

"I know what I'm talking about," Villaraigosa said. "I was a high school dropout ... who came back to complete my education. And, let me tell you, it opens up a whole new world to you." 

The students - who went to inner-city schools in East Los Angeles, Boyle Heights, South Los Angeles and the Mid-City area - said they found common themes. 

All the areas had high poverty rates, high crime rates with extensive gang activity, a disengaged teaching force and a lack of youth community activities. 

Some students complained to the teams that teachers did not seem interested in whether they succeeded. One student at Locke High School was quoted as saying all she had to do was show up in class to get a passing grade. 

Other complaints were a lack of relevancy to the community with no emphasis on the Latino or African-American experience in the United States. 

One bright spot the students found was at the new Miguel Contreras Learning Center, where students were more involved in their classes and teachers developed projects and challenged their students to achieve more. 

Deputy Mayor Ray Cortines, a former teacher and superintendent advising Villaraigosa, said he plans to use the information to develop a public consensus on the need for change. 

"Part of the problem is there has been no sense of urgency by the public to change the schools," Cortines said. "That's what we are working so hard to achieve."

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