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INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana has 10 high schools where so many students leave before their senior year that the schools are considered “dropout factories” in a national analysis.
The schools are among about 1,700 regular or vocational high schools nationwide where 60 percent or less of the students who enter high school make it to their senior year, according to the analysis conducted by Johns Hopkins University for The Associated Press.
The Indiana Department of Education, unlike agencies many other states, tracks individual students using unique testing numbers. So its graduation rates – which account for students who transfer to other Indiana schools or are held back a year – might be a more accurate reflection of how many students stay in school, according to the agency.
Still, many of the Indiana schools tagged by Johns Hopkins researcher Robert Balfanz as “dropout factories” in the review of three consecutive high school classes also have poor graduation rates.
At Arsenal Technical High School in Indianapolis, for example, researchers said an average of just 22 percent of the students who entered high school were still there during their senior year. The state, however, says the school has a 44 percent graduation rate. Neither measure paints a rosy picture of the school.
Arsenal Tech is representative of many schools on the researchers’ list, which is made up mostly of schools with many poor, minority students from urban areas in Indianapolis, East Chicago, Gary and Richmond.
Students likely to drop out tend to enter school lagging behind, said Jason Bearce, a spokesman for the Indiana Department of Education.
The following Indiana schools were identified by Johns Hopkins University researchers as “dropout factories” because no more than 60 percent of the students who start as freshmen make it to their senior year:
–Arsenal Technical High School, Indianapolis: 22 percent promoted*, 44 percent graduation rate**.
–Manual High School, Indianapolis: 24 percent promoted, 48 percent graduation rate.
–Arlington High School, Indianapolis: 26 percent promoted, 52 percent graduation rate.
–Northwest High School, Indianapolis: 29 percent promoted, 54 percent graduation rate.
–Broad Ripple High School, Indianapolis: 34 percent promoted, 72 percent graduation rate.
–Richmond High School, Richmond: 53 percent promoted, 54 percent graduation rate.
–Roosevelt High School, Gary: 58 percent promoted, 42 percent graduation rate.
–Perry Meridian High School, Indianapolis: 59 percent promoted, 74 percent graduation rate.
–Wallace High School, Gary: 60 percent promoted, 47 percent graduation rate.
–East Chicago Central High School, East Chicago: 60 percent promoted, 62 percent graduation rate.
*Promotion rate: The percentage promoted shows how many students who start as freshmen make it to their senior year. It covers regular and vocational high schools with three years of valid data and 100 or more students.
**Graduation rate: The graduation rate from the Indiana Department of Education includes factors such as transfers or retained students. Department officials say those numbers are a more accurate reflection of how many students stay in school.
