Dropout numbers on rise

Kennebec Journal, March 30, 2008

(excerpt) Using the new counting method the following year, Maine's dropout rate doubled. Some 5.4 percent -- 3,337 of the 61,593 students enrolled in the state's public high schools during 2005-2006 -- dropped out, according to the latest figures reported by the state Department of Education.

The jump is due to a new uniform reporting system enacted by the state that requires school districts to count as dropouts all students who leave school but go on to receive a degree through adult education.

Some educators are hailing the new system as the most accurate accounting to date of Maine dropouts -- they hope the statistics will focus attention on the dropout problem.

But others call it a one-size-fits-all system that fails to take into account differences in students' life circumstances or learning styles that make it impossible for some students to succeed in traditional, four-year high schools.

"We really prided ourselves on being able to transfer (students to an alternative program) and they would still get a Westbrook High School diploma," but now those diplomas count as dropouts, said Stan Sawyer, superintendent in Westbrook, where the high school dropout rate more than doubled to 8 percent under the new accounting.