Sisters High School has few dropouts

Sisters High School has a near-zero dropout rate. During the last school year (2001-02), only three of the 453 students enrolled at the beginning of the year withdrew before the year was over.

This produced an official dropout rate of .66 percent, according to an annual report issued earlier this month by the State Department of Education.

Sisters' experience is part of a favorable story across the state. The statewide dropout rate for 2001-02 was 4.9 percent, representing the fourth consecutive year the rate has fallen. It was 6.9 percent in 1997-98.

The report said that six of the eight traditional public high schools in the three counties of Central Oregon recorded their lowest rates in 11 years. Sisters was one of those.

Bob Jones, a research analyst who focuses on this topic at the state department, said more high schools are tracking down students as soon as they show signs of falling behind and they are offering more options to keep kids connected to the school.

"They are not letting these kids just slide or disappear," he told The Oregonian. "They send the message, 'We want you. You're important. Let's find a way to make this work.'"

His words echoed those of Sisters School Superintendent Steve Swisher and Sisters High School Principal Boyd Keyser.

Swisher pointed to the development of alternative programs for students who fall behind so they "at least have a way to stay connected" and, if possible, eventually re-enter the regular program.

The size of the school helps, too, Swisher believes. Sisters officially had 453 students in the fall of 2001-02, making it the third smallest of the eight high schools in the region. Regional enrollments ranged from 162 students at Culver High (with a dropout rate of 5.56 percent) to 1,634 at Redmond High (with a rate of 1.47 percent).

"Class sizes (here) are generally small, and generally every teacher can know every student in school by name," Swisher said. "When you have 2,000 students that isn't possible. So it is harder (here) for a student to feel anonymous or that someone isn't caring. I think that has as much to do with (keeping students in school) as any special program."

Similar thoughts were voiced by principal Keyser: "I think part of it is just the general philosophy. When I first arrived here (four years ago) we developed core values. The first one is that we are going to establish a caring community. Kids feel like it's a place where they can find a niche, a place where they want to be. That's the number one reason we have such a low rate. Kids do feel like they belong here."

He also said the school does "a very good job, especially for a small school" of making sure there are activities for students with a wide variety of backgrounds and interests.

Eighty-two percent of Sisters High students are involved in co-curricular activities. Those activities, from sports to music to video-making, used to be called "extra-curricular." The change in terminology suggests emphasis on the social and educational value of this part of the total school program.

Keyser also cited the importance of the high school's Flex program, which "used to be a place where we sent the kids that we didn't want to deal with. Now it's an alternative that's really beneficial, a place for kids to readjust, get settled, and hopefully to re-enter the more normal school...But if they don't, that's okay, too, and we're still going to continue to wrap our arms around them and tell them 'You belong.'"

Flex students who earn alternative diplomas now participate in the same commencement ceremony as other graduates.

Measuring dropout rates

By Don Robinson

Educators are applauding the results of a State Department of Education study that shows the statewide dropout rate for 2001-02 at 4.9 percent, falling from 6.9 percent in 1997-98.

Some of the improving dropout rates around the state may be due to a change several years ago in the way the phenomenon is measured.

Today, a dropout is defined fairly narrowly as a student who withdrew from school during the year and did not graduate from or transfer to another school that could lead to a diploma of some type.

Those who drop out of regular school and attend alternative high school programs or work on General Educational Development (GED) certificates are not counted as dropouts.

Fourteen months ago, Oregon news media gave a lot of attention to the release of a national study by the politically conservative Manhattan Institute for Policy Research which concluded that in 1998 only 67 percent of those who should have earned high school diplomas in Oregon actually did so.

This measure of the "graduation rate," the flip side of a dropout rate, indicated that the national rate was 74 percent. On this scale, Oregon ranked a low 40th among the states.

The Manhattan study used an entirely different methodology. It took eighth-grade enrollments in 1993, adjusted them for state population growth, and compared the result with the number of students earning diplomas in 1998.

It gave no credit for students who were still working toward regular or alternative diplomas in other settings.

But no mention of that study or others with similarly dour conclusions marred the acclaim that greeted yet another favorable official state school dropout report this month.