Several of Louisiana’s educational programs are cited as among the country’s best practices in a newly-released national report on reducing the high school dropout rate. The National Governors Association’s (NGA) report, Achieving Graduation for All: A Governor’s Guide to Dropout Prevention and Recovery, highlights successful models across the country, citing Louisiana in several examples.

“From pioneering a statewide early warning data system to turning around chronically low-performing high schools in the Recovery School District, Louisiana is at the forefront of devising policies and programs to address the dropout problem,” said NGA policy analyst Ryan Reyna, one of the report’s authors. “Because of Louisiana’s comprehensive vision for reform, the state is on the path to achieving graduation for all.”

The report recommends reducing dropout rates by encouraging more school accountability, targeting those most at risk of dropping out, and providing creative alternatives to programs that are not working. Schools across Louisiana are already implementing programs aimed specifically at these goals, and the NGA report showcases some of the state’s initiatives as those that should be emulated.

“For several years now, Louisiana’s education community has aggressively been pursuing initiatives and implementing programs to support middle and high school students, so that more of them earn a high school diploma or GED – and so that we can prepare our next generation to thrive beyond high school,” State Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek said. “Recently, we significantly intensified our efforts around these initiatives. So this report, which highlights our state’s strategies as best practices, provides us with further evidence that we are focusing our efforts and resources on activities that can make the greatest impact as we strive to reduce our dropout rate and raise our graduation rate.”

Louisiana recently accelerated its goal to achieve an 80 percent graduation rate – from 2016 to 2014. That 80 percent goal will place Louisiana’s graduation rate beyond the current national average of 74.7 percent -- and substantially higher than Louisiana’s current rate of 66.6 percent. That timeframe represents the graduation success of students who are currently enrolled in 8th grade – and will require dramatic improvement, considering Louisiana’s current national rankings. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, for the year 2006-2007, Arizona had the highest annual percentage of 9th-12th grade students dropping out of school prior to earning a high school diploma or GED (7.6 percent), followed by Louisiana and Michigan (both 7.4 percent).

“Louisiana policy makers are right to recognize the urgency of improving our success,” Pastorek continued. “The demands of the 21st century, knowledge-based economy require our students to have more advanced knowledge and skills. And considering that the future of our next generation depends on the ability of our students to meet these expectations, the aim of Louisiana’s education community is to achieve this goal.”

Among the Louisiana highlights cited by the NGA report released today is the state’s inclusion of graduation measurement in the state’s accountability program. The NGA study recommends that graduation rates should not just be included in state accountability systems, but that the measurements should be heavily weighted. “Louisiana is a leading state in this area,” the authors note, as evidenced by Louisiana’s Graduation Index, which rewards schools for both dropout prevention and recovery.

Since the state’s Graduation Index was implemented in 2007, the measurement accounts for 30 percent of the School Performance Score for Louisiana high schools. The remaining 70 percent comes from student scores on state assessments. Louisiana also penalizes schools for each student identified as a dropout. The aim is to encourage schools to reach out to those students who appear to be on the path to dropping out.

The study also indentifies Louisiana as being on the forefront of targeting at-risk youth. The NGA report points to the state’s Dropout Early Warning System (DEWS), which flags students as at-risk of dropping out. Dropout indicators include:

• A student is absent 10 percent of the days they have been enrolled.
• A student’s current GPA is 1.00 or less.
• A student’s GPA has dropped by at least a half point, or they are overage for their grade level.

In their recommendations, the authors of the NGA study also stress the need for states to rely on creative solutions to replace traditional programs that are proving ineffective. Again, as an example, they point to Louisiana, and specifically the state’s Recovery School District (RSD), which has absorbed the state’s chronically low-performing schools.

“In Louisiana, this intensive support structure has helped drive student performance” said the study’s authors, making reference to the fact that the annual graduation rate for high school seniors in the RSD rose from 39 percent in 2007 to 67 percent in 2008.

The NGA report also explores effective methods for supporting students who have failed a course, and provides as an example Louisiana’s Credit Recovery Grant Program. This program aims to reduce dropouts by improving the on-time promotion of 9th and 10th grade students by preventing students from failing courses and helping them recover credit in the event they do fail a course.

Collectively, these programs have made a significant impact on the number of dropouts in Louisiana since 2000, based on the NGA indicator around “dropout factories.”

Dropout factories, which exist in all 50 states, are defined as schools where at least 40 percent of their 9th graders fail to reach the 12th grade in three years.

According to the NGA report, based on a three-year average for the classes of 2000, 2001, and 2002, 78 schools, or 26 percent of Louisiana’s high schools, met the definition of a dropout factory. Based on a three year average for the classes of 2005, 2006, and 2007, there were 45 dropout factories in Louisiana (15.7 percent). While this number represents a significant decline in the number of dropout factories in the state, it also demonstrates the significant challenges facing Louisiana schools.

Further evidence of Louisiana’s progress is the overall gains made in the state’s graduation rate as reported by NGA. In 2004-2005, the percentage of Louisiana students who graduated in the traditional four-year time frame, the cohort graduation rate, was 63.9 percent. NGA’s estimated 2009 Cohort Graduation rate for Louisiana was 66.6 percent.

Louisiana’s self reported cohort graduation rate for 2009 is 66.6 percent – an improvement from previous years: 2001 (61.3 percent); 2006 (64.8 percent); and 2008 (65.9 percent).

To read the NGA report in its entirety, go to www.nga.org.

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