The city dropout rate is 10.5 percent, compared with the statewide average of 2.9 percent.
Springfield School Supterintendent Alan J. Ingram has promised to make changes at three city high schools with particularly high drop-out rates.SPRINGFIELD – Superintendent Alan J. Ingram has pledged changes at the High School of Commerce, the High School of Science and Technology and the Springfield Academy for Excellence to reverse rising drop-out rates.
Responding to new figures released by the state, Ingram said teams are being formed to examine why the rates are higher at Commerce, Sci-Tech and SAFE than other city high schools, and what can be done to lower them.
During the last school year, Science and Technology posted a 15.9 percent rate drop-out rate; Commerce, 15.5 percent; and SAFE, an alternative high school, 35.1 percent rate, according to a report by the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
The drop-out rate at Central High School was 4.6 percent; at Putnam Vocational Technical High School, it was 6 percent. The city’s other alternative high school, Renaissance, had a 3.3 percent rate.
Overall, the drop-out rate rose to 10.5 percent last year, compared with 9.6 the year before. The statewide average is 2.9 percent.
Graduation rates were also down, from 54.5 percent in 2009 to 53 percent last year; Renaissance and Central had the highest rates, at 81.1 and 75.7 respectively, followed by Putnam at 69.7 percent; Science and Technology at 39 percent; and SAFE at 25.6 percent.
Ingram told the School Committee Thursday night that the figures were disappointing, especially for Hispanic students, who had the highest drop-out rate by ethnic group with 12.4 percent, and lowest graduation rate at 46.4 percent.
By gender, 11.3 percent of males dropped out, compared with 9.6 for females. Overall, ninth grade had the most drop outs, with 307, the superintendent said.
Ingram said intervention teams, composed of administrators, guidance counselors and teachers, will be formed for the three high schools with the highest drop-out levels. Other steps will include continued analysis of drop-out data to find new patterns and trends, individual drop-out prevention plans for students at risk, and more academic support for ninth graders.
In addition, the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth’s Urban Initiative will conduct an independent evaluation of drop-out prevention initiatives already under way, Ingram said.
“The results were very disappointing, but I’m confident we can turn this around,” Ingram said.
“It’s going to take all of us working together, in a unified way,” he added.