dropouts

RALEIGH — Only 14 of the 100 North Carolina schools served by state dropout prevention grant recipients saw substantial improvement in dropout and graduation rates from 2006-07 to 2007-08. Those…

Only 14 of the 100 schools that received services from dropout prevention grant recipients had substantially lower dropout rates and higher graduation rates from the 2006-07 to the 2007-08 school year. Of the five types of recipients awarded grants, grants to non-profit organizations appeared to have the most success.

RALEIGH — Improved Career and Technical Education programs could help lower North Carolina’s public school dropout rate while helping more students prepare for the workforce. Those are key findings in…

According to the Employment Security Commission of North Carolina, only a handful of fast-growing occupations require a four-year degree. A U.S. Department of Education report found that North Carolina devotes a relatively small share of its resources to vocational schools.

RALEIGH — More than 70 percent of the school districts that won state dropout prevention grants last year saw their graduation rates decline in 2008. A John Locke Foundation analyst…

During the last legislative session, the North Carolina General Assembly voted to reestablish the Committee on Dropout Prevention and add $15 million to the existing $7 million for dropout prevention grants. The purpose of the dropout prevention grants is to raise the graduation rate. Among districts receiving grants last year, 27 of 38 had a declining graduation rate from the 2006-07 school year to the 2007-08 school year.

Last year’s 5.24 percent dropout rate was a four-percent increase from the 2005-06 school year and was the highest rate in seven years. Only 70.3 percent of students in North Carolina graduate in five years. Over the last ten years, the North Carolina General Assembly has repeatedly tried to address the troubling dropout problem with no apparent success. The latest initiative, dropout prevention grants, will likely have little short-term or long-term effect on the dropout rate.

RALEIGH – A new $7 million grant program will likely have little short-term or long-term impact on North Carolina’s high school dropout rate, according to a new John Locke Foundation…

North Carolina is among the 26 states that have a maximum compulsory age of 16. Among the 50 states and D.C., there is no consistent relationship between the maximum compulsory age and graduation and dropout rates.

RALEIGH – Raising the mandatory school attendance age could cost North Carolina nearly $9 million a year, with no positive impact on the state’s graduation or dropout rates. That’s the…