MARYSVILLE Unlike its counterpart to the north, the citys major high school didnt get tagged a dropout factory in a national study done by Johns Hopkins University.
Nevertheless, local school officials say they are not overjoyed with the graduation rate at Marysville-Pilchuck High School.
Its not something were happy about, said Assistant Superintendent Gail Miller.
The Johns Hopkins study pegged Arlington High School as one of 22 schools in the state with a dropout rate of 40 percent or more. Arlington officials dispute that claim, based mostly on the argument that there are several ways to compute graduation rates. Miller certainly agrees there are several means to calculate how a school is performing in terms of passing out diplomas.
Following what she assumes was the method used by Johns Hopkins, Miller put Marysville Pilchuck Highs dropout rate at about 22 percent, or roughly one in every five students.
Miller said the figure reflects the number of students who enter the school in the ninth grade and graduate on time in the 12th grade. She said that method of computation follows that of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which calculates what the government figures to be the adequate yearly progress, or AYP, of students. Arlington Superintendent Warren Hopkins doesnt believe thats a completely fair way of calculating a schools dropout rate.
When all you do is divide the number of seniors by the number of freshmen three years before, he said, youre assuming that everyone is on a four-year track and that nobody has moved, for starters.
Washington state education officials also publish what they figure are the dropout rates of various schools, Miller said using the same AYP computation as the federal government. Millers numbers are for the 2006-2007 school year. The states education Web site doesnt list figures for that year, but awards Marysville-Pilchuck an on-time graduation rate of 82 percent for the 2005-2006 school year. The site lists an extended-time graduation rate of 89 percent.
Miller contends Marysvilles dropout rate has fallen over the past few years, from a high of about 30 percent. She said the institution this year of small learning communities should help lower the dropout numbers even more. According to principal Dawn Bechtholdt, Marysville Mountain View High School has been a small learning community for many years.
Whats working, Bechtholdt said, is, I think, we serve a smaller number of students. Thats afforded staff and students an opportunity to get to know each other.
She added Mountain Views teachers can greet students by name, even if they dont have a particular student in their classes. Teachers regularly meet to discuss what she termed students of concern, plotting strategies to help kids who seem to be struggling.
While she didnt have exact graduation numbers based on AYP, Bechtholdt admitted those numbers would be dismal. But she also said 99 percent of the students who entered the school as seniors last year graduated. While she would love to see every kid graduate, Bechtholdt contends teaching critical thinking and socialization skills is at least as important as handing out diplomas.
According to the state Web site, those dismal numbers Bechtholdt referred to include on-time graduation rate of 28 percent. The extended graduation rate is listed as nearly 54 percent. As is the case with Marysville-Pilchuck, the states numbers are for the 2005-2006 school year.
Marysville Pilchuck Assistant Principal Rob Lowry agreed connections between students and school staff are key and the desire to establish those connections was a driving force behind the creation of small learning communities throughout the district.
Its probably too early to say what the results are at this point, Lowry said.
Marysville Mountain View was originally an option school for students in trouble. That changed at least six years ago, according to Bechtholdt, who said students and parents now request assignment to the school. Lowry said even though the district no longer has the luxury of an option school, Marysville-Pilchuck can assign kids to classes to help with such issues as passing state-mandated testing. That includes an after-school program. The high school also has a full-time attendance officer. Both parents and students can end up in court if truancy becomes excessive.