Inglewood Unified School District realizes a double advantage — by re-checking its dropout numbers

  The Inglewood Unified School District had a problem. 

  More than a quarter of the Southern California school district’s high school students had dropped out, according to district records.

  But district leaders felt the data might be wrong. They embarked on a multifaceted effort to find and account for each of the students who were reported as dropouts, using phone calls, e-mails, letters by mail, newspaper advertisements and home visits. 

  And when the dust settled, they found that many of those they had been counting as dropouts were enrolled in other schools, had returned to their original school of record or were enrolled in a charter school.

  In fact, the dropout rate was closer to 7 percent. And while that was much better, it wasn’t perfect. 

  But now the district had something else: It had a lot more information on students who had dropped out or were at risk of dropping out. And that information allowed the district to target those students for recovery. 

  Student by student, the district examined the resources it had to address the obstacles that forced the students out of school. Once those factors were considered, the district created a plan of action for each student that encompassed student needs and the district’s response, said Sherryl Carter, the district’s director of adult and career education. 

  In many cases, “the students told us they had left school because they needed a job,” Carter said. “So when we found these students this also helped us to know that we needed to implement more career education opportunities.”

  For more information e-mail scarter@inglewood.K12.ca.us