SBCSS News and Press Releases

County Graduation, Dropout Rates Show Dramatic Improvements

2012-06-27

SAN BERNARDINO - Cohort graduation rates for the 2010-11 academic year jumped 3.5 percent for San Bernardino County students, while cohort dropout rates during the same period fell 3.8 percent, according to data released today by the California Department of Education.

In addition, graduation rates among Hispanic and African American students were higher than statewide averages, while dropout rates for the same subgroups were less than their corresponding statewide averages.

"These results certainly are going in the right direction, but there is plenty of work still to do for our students, schools and districts," County Superintendent Gary Thomas said. "It's particularly gratifying to see the increases taking place among some of our subgroups."

Overall, San Bernardino County students still trailed state averages for both graduation and dropout rates, but the gaps were significantly closer as the growth rate for grads was more than double the state average. The graduation rate of 74 percent shot up 3.5 percent from 2009-10, while the state averages only improved 1.5 percent to 76.3 percent.

This was the second year the state released data using the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System, or CALPADS, which uses identifier codes to track students around the state.

For dropout rates, San Bernardino County improved 3.8 percent to 15.3 percent, nearly 2 times the improvement of the state average that fell to 14.4 percent.

Among subgroups, the improvements in graduation and dropout rates were even more pronounced.

The graduation rates for African American students in the county rose 6.5 percent to 67 percent. That was 4.1 percent above the state grad rates for similar students. Correspondingly, the dropout rates for county African American students fell 5.5 percent to 20.2 percent, which was well under the state average of 24.7 percent.

County Hispanic students also posted better averages for both grad and dropout rates than the state averages. With a grad rate of 71.4 percent countywide, Hispanic students were 1 percent above the statewide average. For the dropout rate, the countywide rate of 17 percent was .7 percent lower than the state average.

White students in the county, which had a grad rate of 81 percent, improved 3.7 percent, but trailed the state average of 85.5 percent. The dropout rate for White students fell 4.1 percent to 10.7 percent, compared to the overall state rate of 8.9 percent.

Among county English learners, grad rates improved 2.5 percent to 60 percent (state average of 60.3 percent). Socioeconomically disadvantaged students in the county jumped 4.6 percent to a grad rate of 69.6 percent, just about even with the state average 70 percent.

For more information on the graduation and dropout rates, visit the California Department of Education's website at www.cde.ca.gov.