The Greenwood Public School District’s dropout rate improved dramatically in 2010, falling from 39 percent to 22 percent.
The district’s graduation and completion rates also rose, in contrast to the overall trends in Mississippi.
“We’ve provided extensive remediation for our students in all core areas. We monitored student attendance — made sure our students were in school — and we differentiated instruction to meet the needs of individual students,” Superintendent Margie Pulley said. “Those were key.”
Greenwood had the second-worst dropout rate in the state in 2009 but improved to 38th this year. Its graduation rate also showed a marked improvement, jumping 10 percentage points to 58.1 percent.
The statewide dropout rate rose slightly to 17 percent, and its graduation rate fell to 71.4 percent. The state’s goal is to lower the dropout rate to 13 percent by 2013.
There has been continued improvement in the dropout rates in both Leflore and Carroll counties.
Carroll County’s fell for the fifth year in a row. In 2007 Carroll County had the worst dropout rate in the state at 36.5 percent.
The district has now whittled it down to 20.1 percent.
“The trend is good; we’re not where we need to be,” Superintendent Billy Joe Ferguson said.
He said after-school tutoring, instituted four years ago, has made a difference as has 30 minutes per day of in-school tutoring for at-risk students. Pre-tests administered throughout the year help gauge where students’ needs are, Ferguson said.
“I really feel good about what we’re doing,” he said.
A new generation of teachers is also more engaged in helping students, according to Ferguson. A few years ago, teachers would fight not to have to use a computer, but today they’ll be ready to fight if a computer goes down, he said.
Ferguson said the way the state counts makes the district look worse than it really is.
He said if a student goes to another high school for three years, transfers into Carroll County for a week and then drops out, the student is counted against Carroll County, even though it didn’t have any control over his education. Districts also have trouble keeping up with students who move to other schools. Even if those students graduate elsewhere, those students also count against a district’s rate.
Ferguson said the state Department of Education is considering changing how it counts dropouts based on a groundswell of criticism.
Carroll County school board member Kenneth DeLoach said some students are just waiting until they reach the age where they can quit school.
“When they get a certain age, they had no intention of learning nothing no way,” he said.
Leflore County’s dropout rate fell four percentage points to 20.4. Its graduation rate is 64 percent, and its completion rate is 73.7 percent.
Graduation rate expresses the number of students who began ninth grade four years earlier who received diplomas. Completion rate also counts students who receive occupational diplomas and GEDs from in-school programs.
• Contact Charlie Smith at csmith@gwcommonwealth.com.
