Thousands of eighth-graders dropping out each year in California

A typically overlooked corner of the dropout problem became a little more visible Thursday when state officials for the first time released the dropout rate for eighth-graders, the LA Times reported this week.

Statewide, about 3.5 pecent of eighth-graders — nearly 20,000 in all — left school and didn’t return for ninth grade, according to the state count. Of those, about 4,200 dropped out during the academic year of eighth grade; more than 13,000 finished eighth grade but didn’t show up for ninth grade, the traditional beginning of high school.

The state has long been able to compare the size of eighth-grade enrollment to that in the ninth grade. But the result is an imprecise measure of dropouts, because it’s difficult to account for students who move in or out of the state (or, especially in California's internationally migratory population, the country) or who switch to private school.

The new data are based on a unique identification number for every student. It still is likely to underestimate the number of dropouts.

Nonetheless, eighth-graders still don't count in the official dropout rate, which is based only on what happens in high school.