Program evaluation, career information and education services, grades 6 - 12, Georgia Department of Education

State Of Georgia Program Evaluation
DROPOUT PREVENTION EFFORTS

MARCH 1998

Department of Education
Prepared for The Budgetary Responsibility
Oversight Committee
Prepared by Department of Audits Office of Planning and Budget

Table of Contents

Letter of Transmittal ..................................................... i

Executivesufnmary

.....................................................

. .
11

Purpose ................................................................1

Issues Addressed ....................................................... 1

Background
Introduction ........................................................... 1 Programs for At-Risk Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Strategies for Reducing Dropout Rates .......................................4 Evaluation Methodology ..................................................4 Findings ...............................................................6 Appendix A: Dropout and Completion Statisticsby School System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16
Appendix B: Descriptions of At-Risk Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 Appendix C: SREB Recommendationsfor Reducing the Dropout Rate . . . . . . . . . . . .23

CLAUDLE.VICKERS
STATE AUDITOR
(404)6552174

DEPARTMEONF ATUDITASND ACCOUNTS
254 Washington Street, S.W., Suite 214
Atlanta, Georgia 30334-8400

March 5, 1998

The Honorable Terry Coleman, Chairman Members of the Budgetary Responsibility Oversight Committee
Dear Representative Coleman:
Under the provisions of O.C.G.A. 45-12-178 which requires periodic evaluations of all state programs, we have conducted a program evaluation of the state's Dropout Prevention Efforts. This evaluation was conducted by staff from the Department of Audits.
The results of our evaluation are summarized in the Executive Summary and are presented in detail in the body of the report. We would like to express our appreciation to the Department of Education for their cooperation and assistance.
We are available to meet with the Budgetary Responsibility Oversight Committee at your convenienceto discuss this report and address any questions from the Committee.

Sincerely,

Sincerely,

' Tim Burgess, ~ i r a t o r Office of Planning and Budget

Claude L. Vickers State Auditor

us Every school year from 1993 through 1997, about 28,000 Georgia students dropped out of high school. Of the students who enter the 9th grade, only about 68% complete high school four years later. In 1997, the completion rate for the 173 school systems with high schools ranged fiom 44% to 92%, with 99 school systems having completion rates of less than 68%. (See Page 6.)
us The Department of Education should take steps to promote a comprehensive dropout prevention program by adopting a unified state dropout prevention plan. Currently, the Department does not have a dropout prevention coordinator or a dropout prevention unit with the authority to develop and implement a unified dropout prevention strategy or provide technical assistance and guidance to local school systems. Although the Department administers a variety of programs that address the needs of students at risk of dropping out of school, it has not developed an overall plan for identifying how these programs work together to reduce the overall dropout rate. (See Page 8.)
Although the Department has an overall goal of improving the academic achievement level of all students, it has not established a goal of reducing the state's dropout rate by a specific amount within a specified time fiame. It should be noted that a primary goal of the state's Quality Basic Education Act is to decrease the number and percentage of students who drop out prior to graduation. (See Page 9.)
The Department needs to compile more complete information regarding the students who drop out and their reasons for dropping out. Although a system of withdrawal codes is used by the Department to account for students who withdraw fiom local school systems, the codes do not indicate why students drop out of school and cannot be used to target effective prevention efforts. Implementation of the Department's new Student Record Data Collection system should enable the Department to capture additional information regarding student dropouts. (See Page 10.)
The Department should compile a comprehensivelisting of effective dropout prevention efforts that have been implemented throughout the state, including innovative approaches that have been developed at the local level. (See Page 11.)
Currently, the Department does not track students who withdraw fiom one Georgia school system and
enter another . As a result, it cannot determine if students who are reported as transfer students (and not
included in a local system's dropout rate) actually transferred or if students reported as dropouts actually enrolled in another system. The Department has indicated that implementation of SchoolNet, a computerized reporting system currently in place at three pilot locations, will enable student records to be transferred while retaining a unique identification number for each student. (See Page 12.)
The Department should be commended for establishingthe State Report Card as a method for holding schools accountable for the education they provide their students. (See Page 13.)
The state should consider alternative dropout prevention strategies that have been implemented in

Purpose
The purpose of the state's dropout prevention efforts is to reduce the number of students who quit school before they complete their high school education. Although there is no state program specifically responsible for dropout prevention, the Department of Education (DOE) administers a number of programs designed to help students succeed in school and thereby reduce the likelihood of their dropping out. One of the primary goals of the state's Quality Basic Education Act is a decrease in the number andpercentage of students who enter school but drop out prior to graduation.
Issues Addressed
This report presents the results of our evaluation of the state's dropout prevention efforts. The evaluation addressed the following issues:
Is the state taking steps to meet the goals of the Quality Basic Education Act with regard to reducing the number of students dropping out of school?
Has the state's dropout rate increased or decreased over the last five years?
Are dropout statistics at the state and local levels accurate?
Are adequate dropout prevention efforts in place at the state and local level? Does the Department of Education provide adequate assistance to local school systems with regard to dropout prevention?
What are other states doing to reduce their dropout rates?
Background
Introduction During 1996-1997'29,294 students in grades 9-12 dropped out of Georgia's public schools. As defined by DOE, a dropout is a student who leaves school prior to graduating for any reason other than death, transfer to another school, or participation in home study. Dropout

data is collected over a 12-month period fiom October to October. The annual dropout rate and the completion rate are included in Appendix A for each of the state's 173 school systems which has a high school.
The annual dropout rate measures the percentage of students who dropout each year without completing a high school degree. This dropout rate for 1997 was calculated using the following formula:
Dropout Rate = Number of D~ODOUfro~mSGrades 9-12 in 1997
Total Enrollmentin Grades 9-12 in 1997

The completion rate, sometimescalledthe graduation or cohort rate, measures what happens to an individual group of students as they progress through high school. The following formula was used to calculate the 1997 completion rate:

Completion Rate =

Number of Graduates in 1997

Number of Graduates in 1997 + Number of Dropouts from the Class of 1997 (1)

(1) Students who entered the 9th grade in the 1992-1993 school year and subsequently dropped out.

It should be noted that because the two rates are calculated using different time periods and different student populations, the completion rate and the dropout rate for a given school system do not equal 100%.
Programs for At-Risk Students While the Department of Education does not have a Dropout Prevention Program per se, it does have programs specifically designed to assist students who are at risk of school failure. These at-risk students, who are most likely to drop out of school, include students with significant academic deficiencies, behavior and attendance problems, limited English proficiency, low socioeconomic background, and students who are teenage parents. Through discussions with DOE administrators and local school system personnel, the evaluation team identified 15programs (including one administered by the Off~ceof School Readiness) that address the needs of at-risk students. A brief synopsis of each of these programs is presented in Exhibit 1 on the following page. More complete information regarding each program is provided in Appendix B.