Superintendent says dropout signs appear early

• By WILL SENTELL
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Oct 29, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Nearly four in 10 public high school students fail to graduate, but signs of academic trouble often appear in the third grade, educators said Tuesday.

State Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek told about 1,000 educators and others that:

• 62 percent of public high school students graduate from high school on time.
• 55 percent of black ninth-graders finish high school in four years, which is the same as the national average.
• 70 percent of white students graduate on time, below the national average of 78 percent.

“You cannot be successful if you don’t graduate from high school,” Pastorek said. “Unskilled jobs are disappearing.”

Pastorek and others spoke to a statewide summit entitled “Louisiana’s Promise,” which was designed to find new ways to stem what they called a dropout crisis.

The gathering, which took place at the Baton Rouge River Center, included superintendents, law enforcement officials, judges and state policymakers.

The meeting stemmed from a state push to revamp public high schools, including a goal  of an 80 percent high school  graduation rate by 2015.

About 190,000 students attend public high schools. Ninth-graders are the most likely to quit high school.

But Pastorek, who gave the keynote speech, said signs of school trouble often show up years earlier.

“The problem is well under way by the third grade,” he said.

Pastorek said that about 50 percent of third-graders who are unable to read or do math at grade level then will become dropouts.

Ten to 15 percent of students in Louisiana who attend kindergarten or first grade are forced to repeat, said Billy Stokes, director of the Cecil Picard Center for Child Development in Lafayette.

“Retention is the highest predictor of students who drop out,” he said.

Stokes said some school districts are considering a ban on retaining students until fourth grade, in part because students get little remedial assistance.

The conference took place amid new controversy on what the state should do to trim the dropout rate.