Dropouts take a fall at ECCPS

The Issue: Dropout rate declines in the Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Public Schools

Our position: Success on dropouts can extend to other achievements when leaders make it a priority

The results from the recent school board elections in Pasquotank County show local voters went to the polls wanting new ideas and strategies to guide school policy.

It turns out that the public’s desire for new approaches to education was already being realized in the system’s dropout prevention effort. N.C. Department of Public Instruction statistics show the number of students leaving the school system before graduating is down significantly. According to the latest figures, during the 2007-08 year, the system recorded a low of 81 dropouts, for a class-wide rate of 4.26 percent. Compare that to 104 dropouts and a rate of 5.19 percent in 2006-07 or look back farther to 145 dropouts and a staggering rate of 7.89 percent, 10 years ago.

Much of the success in curbing dropouts has come in the last few years — or since Kevin Sawyer was named dropout prevention coordinator for the Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Public Schools. Sawyer implemented a successful process of intervention in which he, with the help of school staff, monitors the attendance records of students and flags those students who show a consistent decline in getting to school regularly. The process involves counseling those students to improve attendance. If that is unsuccessful, the process then moves to parents and if necessary to the court system, which can enforce mandatory attendance.

Sawyer has found an effective strategy to deal with dropouts — one of three key goals seen as priorities for local education. The others include improving the daily attendance rate and the four-year graduation rate. All three are related, because they affect how well schools perform on the larger issue of producing graduates, on time, who are ready for work or higher education.

That begins with students attending school regularly and keeping up in class work. It’s when there’s a breakdown in the process that a student’s potential for success is disrupted. That can show up early with attendance problems, so intervention is critical — as Sawyer’s efforts have demonstrated.

We applaud this success. Yet, we’d urge local education leaders to direct additional dropout prevention resources in the schools and to extend the process to elementary schools. This would bring even better results.

Similarly, to keep students on track, as local teachers, staff and parents have acknowledged, ECPPS needs a summer school program.

Summer school would bring several benefits to local education and the community. For instance, a key reason that students lose interest, get frustrated and drop out of school is because they get behind and are unable to catch up. Summer school allows students who fail a course or who get off track during the year an opportunity make it up and move on.

Additionally, summer school helps teachers by reducing class sizes during the year and relieves students from falling a full semester behind.

Considering community expectations for schools to produce qualified graduates on time, we wonder why a summer school program has not been aggressively pursued. The easy excuse is financial. Yet, Camden County, which has far less financial means, offers summer school, as do other area counties. Certainly, if they make it a priority, school board members can find grants, state funding, or, if necessary, financial support from Pasquotank County to fund a summer school program.

Summer school should be part of the system’s offerings. The school board and the county should make it one.