Dropout Factories

There's a name that you don't want associated with your school, but 22 Washington schools have gotten the appellation. From the Seattle PI:

It's a nickname no principal could be proud of: "dropout factory," a high school where no more than 60 percent of the students who start as freshmen make it to their senior year.

That dubious distinction applies to more than one in 10 high schools across America, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University, who analyzed Education Department data for The Associated Press.

A handful of Washington's 290 high schools -- about 22 -- would be included on the list. Those 22 schools are spread throughout the state, but are found mostly in poor rural and urban school districts.

Every comprehensive high school in Tacoma made the list, but none in Seattle or Spokane.

Later on in the article names are named:

The list of 22 schools included some alternative schools, which often educate the students who have the hardest time in classes. It also included schools whose students often have parents in the military or who are migrant workers -- both groups that move frequently.

The complete list of the 22 high schools: Arlington; Chelan; Clover Park; Cusick Junior-Senior; H.S. Truman, Federal Way; Washington, in Franklin Pierce School District near Tacoma; Grandview; Evergreen, in Highline School District; Tyee in the Highline District; Hoquiam; R.A. Long, Longview; Oak Harbor; Pasco Senior; E.B. Walker, Puyallup; Foss, Tacoma; Lincoln, Tacoma; Mount Tahoma, Tacoma; Stadium, Tacoma; Wilson, Tacoma; Toppenish; Davis, Yakima; and Eisenhower, Yakima.

You can find an earlier, 2004 version of the report here; a longer version of the PI article is at Yahoo.

More local coverage (this is the big education story in the newspapers today) can be found from the Everett Herald, talking about the Arlington High perspective, The News Tribune for Tacoma, the Longview Daily News for R.A. Long High, and a rather funny "Hey--not us!" article from The Olympian.

The question is what to do.