By Anthony Howard -- March 2, 2010
Massachusetts students are more likely to stay in school this year. A new report released by the state department of education today shows the high school dropout rate dipped to 2.9 percent, the lowest it has been in a decade.
"The heightened awareness of it over the past year at the state level has played an important factor," says J.C Considine, spokesman for the Massachusetts Department of Education.
Considine credits the improved dropout rate to many factors. One of those factors, called an "Early Warning Indicator Index" works to target students at risk of dropping out as early as middle school. "We want to make sure that we are not just reactive to this issue. We want to be able to work with schools and districts so they have the tools to be able to identify students earlier than high school, in the middle school grades that are at risk of dropping out, so that they can intervene and provide them with the kind of support they need to stay in school."
The Department of Education highlighted the improvement urban school districts made in keeping kids in the classroom. 179 fewer Fall River students dropped out, Lawrence saw 80 fewer dropouts compared to last year.
Curbing the dropout rate has been a top priority for Boston Mayor Tom Menino and the city's superintendent Carol R Johnson. The city saw its dropout numbers decline to 6.4 percent, from 7.2 percent last year.
Superintendent Johnson said in a statement "this data shows movement in the right direction, but we will not begin to be satisfied until we have reached the target presented in our Acceleration Agenda: a dropout rate of 3 percent or lower by 2014".
The dropout rate of minority students is still disproportionately higher than their white counterparts, but Latino students saw the biggest improvements this year out of the states five major racial or ethnic groups. The Latino dropout rate fell to 7.5 percent from 8.3 percent a year ago.
