Those whose graduation rates were less than 60% were labeled "dropout factories".
My high school, McKinley High School was one of them.
http://starbulletin.com/2007/10/30/news/story01.html
A national report is labeling seven Oahu public high schools as "dropout factories," meaning that no more than 60 percent of freshmen make it to their senior year.
Hawaii ranked 11th among the states reporting the most dropout factories in an analysis of Education Department data conducted by Johns Hopkins University for the Associated Press.
The state Education Department disputed the findings, noting that Hawaii ninth-graders tend to fall behind and inflate freshman enrollment. So comparing the number of freshman and seniors at any given year to determine dropout and graduation rates is misleading, said Education Department spokesman Greg Knudsen.
The percentage of isle freshmen who move on to their senior year at the schools highlighted in the report ranged from 45 percent at Nanakuli High and Intermediate to 60 percent at Kailua High. The other schools facing dropout problems include Farrington, Kaimuki, McKinley, Waianae and Waipahu, according to the study released yesterday. Those schools all have a large number of minority and low-income students.
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Going to a school labeled a "dropout factory" DOES NOT mean you're "dumb". It just means too many of your classmates aren't graduating.
1) My alma mater McKinley has a lot of high achievers. There are students who excel in math meets, science fairs, robotics, and other academic areas. Many go on to colleges with great reputations.
However, at the same time, there are other students at the school who are gang-affiliated, as well as wanabee thugs, and other non-achievers. What I mean by non-achievers is those students who don't even try to reach their potential in academics.
I remembered when I attended that school, there were students who were freshmen the same year I was, but by the start of my senior year, a lot of those students were gone! The overwhelming # of those students were non-achievers, so it was obvious that they dropped out of school.
Some of them were already falling behind in middle school. For some reason, they were academically promoted to high school, which tends to grade a lot harder than middle school. So some of them gave up!
2) some have questioned the formula used by the Johns Hopkins researchers to determine what school is a "dropout factory"
Here is a commentary from a teacher at Kaimuki High School (also labeled a "dropout factory")
http://starbulletin.com/2007/10/31/editorial/letters.html (scroll down to the 2nd letter from top)
I am appalled that you published findings from a John Hopkins University report labeling seven Hawaii high schools as "dropout factories" (Star-Bulletin, Oct. 30). If you did your homework, you would have found out that the study assumes that any student who does not graduate from the same high school he or she enters into as a freshman is a dropout. This is so far from the truth. I am a teacher at Kaimuki High School, and we have an extremely transient population. Many students enter as freshmen but later move to the mainland or back to their home country and graduate there. They should not be labeled as dropouts.
Kaimuki High has similar demographics to McKinley (Lot of immigrants, mostly Asians, also has many Polynesians and Micronesians), though Kaimuki High has more European-Americans than McKinley. McKinley has more Filipinos than Kaimuki High Other than that, both schools are almost alike.
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And here are commentaries from the principals of Waipahu & Farrington High Schools (also labeled "dropout factories"). Both schools are majority Filipino, with some Samoans and Micronesians. Many of them are immigrants, and many are from low-income households.
http://starbulletin.com/2007/11/04/editorial/commentary.html
Farrington and Waipahu each enrolls more than 2,500 young people. Our students come from diverse cultural and language backgrounds. Approximately 20 percent of our students are learning to speak English while simultaneously endeavoring to meet challenging graduation requirements. Both of our schools receive federal funds because 48 percent to 60 percent of our families have incomes low enough to qualify for government assistance. The Johns Hopkins researchers should be familiar with the multitude of studies that link family income to student achievement. Many of our students face overwhelming personal challenges, yet they persist in working toward a future that will be better than their present lives.
Because so many students enter our campuses with academic deficits, we have developed a number of different paths that support the goal of a high school diploma. We have alternative programs within our schools and off-campus partnerships with others in the community. Some students take more than four years to earn their diplomas, but we do not consider them dropouts. Other students who must spend most of their time with us learning English are not able to complete the traditional high school diploma requirements. However, we work with the Community Schools for Adults that are on our campuses to transition these students to the adult diploma programs. They are not dropouts -- they are overcoming great odds to persist in reaching their goal.
(skipped paragraphs)
As the standards for a diploma continue to move more toward requiring all students to be prepared for entry to a four-year college, we can expect to see an increasing need for alternatives for many of our students. Those who take alternative paths are not dropouts and the schools that support them are not "dropout factories." When we consider those who complete their requirements in more than four years, or who transition to the Community Schools and earn a diploma, our completion rates are higher.
So, based on what the school officials from Kaimuki, Waipahu and Farrington said, Johns Hopkins researchers didn't take into account 1) the large # of students who move in & out of the school districts, 2) the large amount of students who take longer than 4 years to earn their diplomas, 3) the large amount of students who are recent immigrants who trying to learn high school material in a new language.
3) Even with the flaws of the Johns Hopkins research, the good thing about it is that it brings awareness of the problem of students who aren't living up to their academic potential, and awareness of which schools are facing more problems than others.
I work in the educational field to help students live up to their potential. I don't take the Johns Hopkins report personally, it shall motivate and remind me of what I need to do to help our students achieve.
