Only 7 of 10 students who enter public high school in Rhode Island graduate, and black and Hispanic graduation rates are significantly lower, according to a national study of dropout rates.
Moreover, in Rhode Island, only a third of all students who begin high school graduate with the skills and courses needed to get into college, and those numbers drop dramatically for black and Hispanic students.
These are among the findings reported in a national study of graduation rates prepared by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a conservative think tank that looks at urban issues.
Rhode Island's overall graduation rate of 71 percent ranks squarely in the middle of the 50 states. In New England, the difference between Rhode Island's rate and those of its neighbors is so small that it doesn't make sense to compare them, according to one of the report's authors.
Social ills such as poverty, drug use and divorce are often blamed for high dropout rates, but the report says that social problems shouldn't excuse schools from shouldering some of the responsibility.
"High schools are not doing a good enough job of keeping kids in school all the way through to graduation," said Greg Forster, senior research associate for the Manhattan Institute. "The other major conclusion is that schools are disproportionally failing to serve black and Hispanic students."
Locally, Rhode Island is doing a much better job of getting black students to graduate than the nation: 63 percent of Rhode Island's freshmen get a diploma four years later, compared with 51 percent nationally.
Hispanic students are also graduating at a slightly higher rate -- 56 percent -- than the nation's average of 52 percent.
In Rhode Island, only Asian students are graduating at a lower rate (66 percent) than the national average (79 percent), but that may be because the population is so small, the rates are exaggerated.
"I don't disagree with the numbers," said Rhode Island Education Commissioner Peter McWalters. "It's about how you change them. Some people think it's about testing kids more. I think it's about changing instruction and meeting the needs of kids who have never achieved in the system."
Rhode Island requires that every student take four units of English and two units each of math, science and social studies. It does not, however, require students to take two years of a foreign language or Algebra I, which are prerequisites for most four-year colleges.
McWalters said his department is surveying every district's graduation requirements to see how each one measures up to college admission standards. Once that study is finished, the department will issue new guidelines designed to prepare all students for college, no matter what track they're on.
But the department is not going to force districts to adopt a universal set of course requirements because, McWalters said, it wouldn't help those students who are ill-prepared to take college-level classes in the first place.
SPURRED BY the dismal performance of high school students on statewide tests, the department decided to craft new high school graduation requirements that not only define what a senior needs to know but how those skills are measured.
Instead of simply taking a set of number of courses, high school students will be asked to demonstrate mastery of specific skills through a senior project, a portfolio of written work or a final presentation. Large high schools will have to break into smaller units, and students will be assigned to an adult who can help them define academic goals.
And, under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, public schools will face sanctions if they do not bring all children to 100 percent proficiency in English and math by 2014.
Meanwhile, McWalters said there are signs of progress: Rhode Island's SAT scores steadily improved over the past 10 years; and the state has adopted a rigorous test for English and math, the New Standards Reference Exam, that assumes a basic understanding of college-level math.
Some districts have figured out ways to keep students interested in high school all the way to the end. In Central Falls, where the dropout rate has fallen 16 points from 1998 to 2002, Principal Jack Lyle says it all boils down to one thing: teachers being engaged in the lives of their students.
The school has also brought in a number of outside organizations such as the Childrens Crusade to offer students everything from adult mentors to after-school tutoring.
"We make sure that students see that there is a world beyond the four corners of Central Falls," Lyle said. "And we're always talking about education being the first step in the journey of life."
Although it's not one of the affluent suburbs, North Providence, at 89 percent, has one of the highest graduation rates in the state. Principal Joseph Goho said one reason is the senior project, which requires seniors to study a topic or career in depth. The student must keep a portfolio of his or her work, complete a college-level research paper, and give a final presentation.
"Our senior project is really making the senior year more meaningful," Goho said. "This is the time when kids who are on the fence about finishing high school drop out. Now, they see a connection between what they're learning and the real world."
In keeping with the new high school regulations, North Providence has also developed a personal learning plan for each student, and the school is getting rid of watered-down math courses.
The Manhattan Institute also claims that schools are grossly overreporting their graduation rates. Its authors found that only 70 percent of high school freshmen graduate four years later, not the 86.5 percent reported by the U.S. Department of Education.
In Rhode Island, the study reported a graduation rate of 71 percent, which is much lower than the state Department of Education's estimate of 81 percent.
Forster says there are two reasons why the official graduation rates are inflated. First, schools don't do a good of tracking students when they leave the system. This is particularly challenging for urban schools, where there is a constant flow of students in and out of the system.
Second, "schools are under enormous political pressure to inflate their graduation rate," Forster said. "High graduation rates make parents happy, voters happy and taxpayers happy."
If a student stops showing up for class, he said, there isn't a lot of incentive for the district to find out why. Some states throw them into the "unknown" category, because then they don't have to count them as dropouts. Other states count students with General Equivalency Diplomas as graduates even though some research shows that GED recipients behave more like dropouts than regular high school graduates.
TO CALCULATE its graduation rates, the Manhattan Institute uses enrollment data provided by the U.S. Department of Education and compares that figure to the number of diplomas that were actually awarded.
Rhode Island calculates its graduation rate based upon how many students in each grade drop out versus how many enrolled, a method used by the majority of states. McWalters acknowledged, however, that this method is flawed, and said the state is moving to adopt a measurement that is similar to the one used by the report's authors.
An independent public policy analyst says the system used by the study's authors is sound, especially for calculating rates in smaller states.
Figuring out how to measure the graduation rate is one thing. Coming up with a solution is another.
"The dropout rate hasn't budged in the 12 years I've tracked it," said Mark Dynarski, an analyst with Mathematical Policy Research. "What this report points out is not only is it the same, but it might be overly optimistic."
Teachers, he said, need to do a much better job of diagnosing why a particular student hates school. It might be as simple as a run-in with a teacher or it might be because the teenager is having trouble at home. In any event, the problem may be fairly simple to resolve.
"Schools need to dig down deeper into what's going on with the student," Dynarski said. "All these kids would be better off having an adult looking after them."
