SBCSS News and Press Releases

County Superintendent Thomas Delivers State Of Education Address

2010-02-10

SAN BERNARDINO - San Bernardino County's dropout rate fell 3.8 percent between 2007 and 2008, yet low graduation rates and high dropout rates remain the "most pressing issues" facing public education, said San Bernardino County Superintendent Gary Thomas today in his State of Education Address.

"Our graduation and dropout rates have severe ramifications that extend well beyond public education," said Thomas in his speech, which was delivered at the California Theatre of the Performing Arts. "We need a more highly skilled and educated workforce to meet the demands of employers and sustain the economic viability of our region."

With several hundred in attendance, board members, superintendents, teachers, classified staff, community partners and county elected officials were among those at the theatre. Ruben Estrada, a member of the County Schools' Alliance for Education, served as master of ceremonies for the event.

In addition to graduation and dropout rates, Thomas highlighted academic accomplishments of county schools and districts, as well as forecasts on the state budget situation and updates on school safety issues.

With the theme of his speech being "Every One Counts," Thomas talked about how communities and individuals can have impact on student achievement programs in public education.

"Last summer, I issued a 'Call to Action' in response to our county's high dropout and low graduation rates and called together key members of my staff to look at research and proven practices to attack this head on," he said. "We need our community's expertise, insights and experiences to tackle these challenges."

In San Bernardino County, 22.5 percent of high school students dropped out, according to the four-year derived rate for the most recent state statistics in 2007-08. That was 3.6 percentage points above the state average. Conversely, the county's graduation rate of 74.3 percent trailed the state average of 80.2 percent.

"This is not an area of concern for our county alone," Thomas said. "Forty years ago, our country was a leader in high school graduation rates. Today, it ranks 18th out of 24 industrialized nations. As recently as 1995, America was tied for first in college graduation rates; by 2006 this ranking had dropped to 14th."

Thomas pointed to the three R's - rigor, relevance and relationships - that could help curb dropout rates and keep students engaged so they could complete their high school graduation with the skills to either move forward to college or be able to compete in the job market.

He pointed to a program - Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) - that has had tremendous success increasing college-going rates, especially among groups that traditionally have not attended college. In the county, more than 89 percent of seniors in the program had been accepted into four-year colleges or universities. That's more than double state averages and 42 percent higher than the best college-going rates of any state in the country.

High school students did make progress in their growth scores on the state's Accountability Progress Report. For the first time in 11 years of state testing, county high school students scored higher than the state averages with 80 percent of schools showing growth in their Academic Performance Index Growth scores, the state's measurement of academic progress.

Other academic achievements highlighted by Thomas included:

• Forty additional schools cleared the state benchmark of 800 for API growth.
• In addition, the number of county schools above 900 API Growth doubled to 20 from 10 last year.
• In the last three years, the county has had 35 schools exit Program Improvement, including 10 of the state's 79 schools this past year.

Despite those academic accomplishments, Thomas said the continued bleak state budget outlook threatens to undermine future academic growth. "We are jeopardizing the future of California's workforce and economy," he said. "Already, we're seeing districts proposing cuts they feel they will have to make to balance their future budgets."

After suffering some $17 billion in cuts during the past two years, Thomas said this may be the most difficult budget year yet for K-12 education. Public schools are proposed to take a $1.7-billion hit, the majority of which is proposed to come from revenue limit funding. Countywide, this equates to roughly a $200 per student reduction for the next fiscal year.

"These budget cuts threaten efforts to sustain improvement and reform, and erode the conditions that support teaching and learning," Thomas said.

With cuts from the previous two budget years, services provided through programs like Coordinated Health, Foster Youth and Homeless Education have increased 10-fold. "Working with our interagency partners in law enforcement, juvenile justice and social service, we're targeting student and family needs to grow healthy schools and communities," Thomas said.

Because high school dropouts are more likely to commit crimes than their peers with a high school diploma, addressing the reasons youth drop out of school also helps to eradicate truancy, juvenile crime and unsafe school environments.

The county's Gangs and Drugs regional task forces have been meeting for a year now and have developed specific short- and long-term goals. As a result, there is a new juvenile court in the West End, which will have its first hearing later in February. In the Desert/Mountain region, strong partnerships have been developed with the Sheriff's Department, to support the rural communities and school districts that do not have their own police departments.

"I am a firm believer in the opportunities we can provide through public education, and I will continue to be a voice that is heard in support of all students in our county and making sure they have every opportunity to achieve academically," Thomas said. "Every one of our students counts; and they're counting on us."