Mississippi ranks in bottom 10 of graduation rates

By MELISSA M. SCALLAN
mmscallan@sunherald.com

Mississippi ranks in the bottom 10 states when it comes to the number of students who graduate from high school, but state and local education officials are starting some aggressive programs to try and change that ranking.

Today, Education Week released graduation rates for the 50 states and the District of Columbia, as well as for individual school districts within each state. The numbers are from the 2003-2004 school year.

The report is titled "Diplomas Count: Ready for What? Preparing for College, Careers and Life After High School" and shows that today's high school graduates will need at least some college to get a decent-paying job.

The report also shows that about 30 percent of the Class of 2007, or about 1.23 million students, did not graduate with their classmates.

Mississippi's graduation rate is 62 percent, which is higher than Alabama, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico and South Carolina.

The national graduation rate is 70 percent. Utah has the highest graduation rate at 84 percent, and South Carolina has the lowest with 54 percent.

Education officials agree it's a difficult problem to overcome because of the variety of reasons students quit school.

"This is not just a Mississippi issue," said Hank Bounds, state superintendent of education. "This is a national issue. There are as many reasons for kids dropping out as there are kids dropping out.

"The bottom line is that we have too many kids dropping out of school."

The Education Week report shows a direct correlation between the amount of education students have and the salary they make.

The U.S. Department of Labor divides jobs into five zones, with the highest-paying jobs in zones three, four and five, and requiring the most education. In Mississippi, 47.3 percent of the working population have jobs in the higher-paying zones, compared to 52.7 percent in the first two zones.

The state has 628,052 jobs in zones three and above, and the median annual income is $31,595.

During the 2006 legislative session, members authorized the creation of the Office of Dropout Prevention. Bounds also has asked each district to develop a dropout prevention team.

Pascagoula school officials are introducing an initiative this fall called "Destination Graduation!" in which students in every grade will know what year they will graduate. The idea is to get students to begin thinking and planning for graduation early to improve graduation rates and help students succeed, Superintendent Wayne Rodolfich said.

"We want to start telling kids when they start school when they will graduate so they can set their goals," he said earlier this year. "We want to increase our (state) graduation rates, be we want to be the ones to set the standards."

In addition, Bounds and other education officials at the department are working with the Mississippi Economic Council to redesign the high school curriculum to help students who go on to college and those who go straight to work.

"The primary emphasis of the high school redesign plan is reducing the dropout rate," Bounds said. "We're trying to make school more relevant. We want to challenge students who need it and provide a safety net for students who are struggling.

"It's a difficult issue to wrap your hands around," he added. "This is not just an education issue. It's a societal issue. If we don't get everyone at the table working to find solutions, we're going to be in the same shape 10 years from now."