High School Graduation Rate: The Highs and Lows

The high school diploma is becoming more of a necessity than ever before,  but graduating isn’t an easy task for every student. Reporter Jason Kostura looks at what the Streetsboro City School district is doing to help students reach their goal.  Kostura also compares Streetsboro’s high school graduation rate to the other Portage County school districts. Reporter Rachel Campbell looks at how the Field Local School District is continuing to record one of the highest graduation rates in the county.  This report examines how the state grades the district’s graduation rate and shows which Portage County school districts are performing the best.

[rpavideo caption= “In this video, TV2 reporter Jason Kostura reports on what the Streetsboro City Schools are doing to ensure a high graduation rate and compares Streetsboro’s statistics to the other  School Districts in the county.”]Kostura_RPA3[/rpavideo]

Comparing the Portage County Districts

By: Rachel Campbell

MOGADORE, OHIO — Making it to graduation day is an easy task for some, but for others, it can take a little push. Surviving those four years of high school in order to make it to college can seem like a miracle for some students across the nation and in Portage County.

Portage County has 11 public school districts with one high school in each. The Ohio Department of Education has set a graduation rate requirement of 90 percent for the state. In Portage County, five of the 11 high schools did not achieve that requirement in the 2012-13 school year, and overall only 293 of 610 districts in the state were awarded an A in that department.

Portage County Graduation Rates 2012 – 13Aurora High School (Aurora City Schools) – 96.6% – A Field Local High School (Field Local Schools) – 93.7% – A Rootstown High School (Rootstown Local) – 92.2% – B James. A Garfield High School (James. A Garfield Schools) – 92.1% – B Crestwood High School (Crestwood Local Schools) – 90.8% – B Southeast High School (Southeast Local Schools) – 90.4% – B Waterloo High School (Waterloo City Schools – 89.1% – B Theodore Roosevelt High School (Kent City Schools) – 88.8% – C Streetsboro High School (Streetsboro City Schools) – 88.1% – C Ravenna High School (Ravenna City Schools) – 87.4% – C Windham High School (Windham Exempted Village Schools) – 80.7% – D

This means that Kent City, Ravenna City, Streetsboro City, Waterloo Local and Windham Exempted Village schools all fell a few percentage points below what the Ohio Board of Education deems necessary.

On the other side, Aurora City, Field Local, James A. Garfield, Rootstown Local, Southeast Local and Crestwood Local schools were all just above or way above the 90 percent requirement.

“We do take [the report card] seriously, and we look at them and see what our rate is, but also, we are so aware of what we do here at school,” Field Local High School Principal Mike Harris said. “I can pull preliminary reports for myself, and I’ll know what the report card is going to look like before the state does.”

Graduation rates are slowly increasing

Despite less than half of Ohio’s districts achieving an A for graduation rate, the last full report of the national rate took place in the 2009-10 school year and showed that 78.2 percent of students graduated on time. This was the highest it had been since 1974.

Back in Portage County, Aurora High School leads the district with a 96.6 percent graduation rate in the 2012-2013 school year followed by Field Local High School with 93.7 percent.

[pullquote]“If you’re sick and tired of having me tell you the same thing over and over again, then start doing your work and start passing classes.”[/pullquote]

“I think the bottom line is because we care,” Harris said. “We want you to graduate, and we care if you graduate, and we’ll do what we can to help you graduate.”

Field Local School personally does several things to ensure they maintain this high rate year after year. First, they monitor their seniors after the first nine weeks if they are in danger of failing and send them for a bi-weekly meeting with the guidance counselor. If they don’t turn their grades around by the end of the first semester then Harris starts to meet with them as well. In the third nine-week period, if the student still is not improving, Harris increases the meetings to once per week for 45 minutes at a time.

“If you’re sick and tired of having me tell you the same thing over and over again, then start doing your work and start passing classes,” he said. “We talk to them about the difference between a high school diploma and having no diploma or a GED. They have to start showing us they have their homework done. I even at times have had kids come and give me their homework, so I can double-check it before I give it to the teacher.”

A GED, or General Educational Development, is a path that some students can take in place of finishing high school and earning a diploma. Although some may feel this is the equivalent of a diploma, statistics show that it may not work out that way. In 2009, 16.9 million people earned a GED and only 43 percent of those went on to college while 73 percent high school graduates did. In that same year, high school diploma earners made approximately $4,700 in mean monthly earnings compared to a $3,100 earned by those with a GED. Furthermore, a GED is better than having only some high school education, which earned an average of $2,400 or only elementary school education, which earned $2,100.

Bargaining to get better

Field High Schools second plan of action following their in-depth meeting process further tries to keep students on track from falling into those statistics. Harris says he’s willing to listen and work with students who do not wish to continue school.

Harris bargains with kids and allows them to do things such as attend school half a day and work the other half as long as they sign-up to take online courses that he has worked with the district to provide for his students. This online alternative is also an option for students who excel in extracurricular courses such as physical education, art or foreign language. Harris has permitted students to attend the classes for these subjects and take their academics online.

“What’s nice about online is as long as you get on the computer and do what’s asked of you, it’s not difficult, but you just have to put the time in,” he said.

Harris’ third plan of action to keep the graduation rate so high is to work with the system. Although graduation is in June, he can still hand a student their diploma by the end of August if they take the last few credits needed to graduate over the summer online or in summer school.

Despite Harris and the rest of Field Local High School’s extensive plans, some students have the ability to fall through the cracks or require an extra amount of time to complete their studies.

“Special education kids can take a little longer, and we allow them to stay in school when you have an IEP,” Harris said.

IEP, or an Individualized Education Program, is a document developed for each child enrolled in public school who is eligible for special education. Those who are eligible exhibit two qualities: a known disability and special education is required to benefit from the general education program.

In addition to special education, Harris has also allowed those who are young for the grade or a good student who had a bad year to return to school past the usual four-year period.

GEDs or graduation?

Harris says that most students who do not graduate from Field Local High School in that four-year period don’t come back to attend class, but he will talk to them about getting a GED or taking online courses to ensure they get a diploma. Although doing this counts against Field Local in terms of the graduation ratings from the Ohio Board of Education, he still does it.

“I’ve had kids get their diploma five years later,” he said. “They’ll come back and give me the report that shows they went through a summer class course online. If they can prove to me that they took it, I see it and see they got a grade for it, I’ll put it on their transcript and I’ll give them their diploma.”

Harris has witnessed some students just have no drive to attend classes and get their diploma, but the inability to do so has also been caused by thing such as incarceration or what he calls “self-medication.”

In a study done by the California Dropout Research Project, four main individual factors were revealed to be the cause of students dropping out. These include educational performance, behaviors, attitudes and background.

Educational performance includes test scores and grades throughout a student’s career whether in high school or early predictors in elementary school. Behaviors involve attending class or school, doing homework and social aspects such as participating in extracurricular activities to keep interest. Attitude loosely includes a student’s belief and drive of how far they want to get in school, and background includes demographics and past experiences.

In his ten years as principal at Field Local High School, Harris has only seen three or four students not obtain a diploma or GED in their four years. Of those three or four, only one has not gone on to get it in another way later.

“I’ve had one kid who hasn’t graduated that I have know,” he says. “I still see him in the community.”

Harris talks to him every time he sees him about finishing the one credit he needs for his senior level English class in order to get a diploma.

“He hasn’t done it yet, but I believe he will,” he says.

When it comes to Field Local High School graduates going on to college, Harris and his staff don’t need much of a push to get their student to take that next step.

“We’re lucky that we’re so close to so many universities,” Harris said. “That’s all [students] hear about and that’s all they think about. Plus, a lot of employees that work at Kent State live in our district, and their kids can go to school for free. That’s the reason why we have a higher percentage than some other schools our size of kids who go to college because they have the opportunity to go to college.”