Portsmouth, Suffolk have two of Va.'s highest dropout rates

The Portsmouth and Suffolk school systems have two of the highest dropout rates in the state - nearly one in five students who entered ninth grade for the first time in 2004 left school within four years before graduating, according to Virginia Department of Education data released Tuesday.

"When you've got a dropout rate of 18 percent, there's no silver lining," said Kevin Alston, Suffolk's assistant superintendent for administrative services. "That's 18 percent of our students that we're failing."

One other South Hampton Roads school division - Norfolk - had a dropout rate higher than the state's rate of 8.7 percent. Thirteen percent of students in that city left school early, placing Norfolk among the bottom 25 of the 131 Virginia districts reporting data.

Chesapeake (6.9 percent) and Virginia Beach (5.5 percent) were below the state rate.

The latest public high school dropout statistics provide the most accurate picture of what's happened at Virginia schools over the past four years, said Charles Pyle, a spokesman for the state education department.

Across the state, 8,347 students left high school early over the four-year period. The rates ranged from 0 percent in Falls Church and Highland County to 31.1 percent in Petersburg.

South Hampton Roads has five of the 34 high schools - not including alternative campuses - that reported dropout rates of 15 percent or higher - Portsmouth's Wilson (26.2) and I.C. Norcom (21.6); Norfolk's Lake Taylor (21.6); and Suffolk's Lakeland (23.7) and King's Fork (20.8).

Eight high schools in South Hampton Roads - including five in Virginia Beach and three in Chesapeake - reported dropout rates lower than 5 percent.

Students who left school without graduating or finishing an approved education program were considered dropouts.

Dropout rates are not the inverse of graduation rates - students on long-term medical leave, for example, are counted separately.

The statistics are broken down by a number of categories, including school division, school, gender and race.

Here's a snapshot of the numbers in South Hampton Roads:

PORTSMOUTH

Superintendent David Stuckwisch said one of the main reasons Portsmouth students drop out of school is because they don't read well. This crop of students came up in the division at a time when officials were struggling to get more schools accredited, he said. Now, 18 out of 20 schools are fully accredited by the state and more students have improved their reading skills.

"If you look at our test scores over the last seven or eight years, the kids are getting better," Stuckwisch said.

SUFFOLK

Dropout rates for Suffolk's three high schools ranged from 10.5 percent at Nansemond River High to 23.7 percent at Lakeland High. Lakeland had the fifth-highest dropout rate in the state among regular high schools.

"We're going to put together a group to study this and come up with recommendations on how to improve," said Alston, the assistant superintendent for administrative services.

Divisionwide, students with disabilities and disadvantaged students fared the worst, with roughly a third in both cases failing to graduate.

NORFOLK

Dropout rates in Norfolk's five high schools ranged from 9.9 percent at Booker T. Washington to 21.6 percent at Lake Taylor.

"I'm not dissatisfied with the numbers because we're making progress... " said Superintendent Stephen C. Jones. But "we're not there yet. We have a way to go."

At Lake Taylor, girls and boys, as well as black, white, Hispanic and disadvantaged students all left school early at a rate of at least one in five. The school's numbers could improve, Jones said, because officials have learned that some students whose whereabouts were previously unconfirmed did indeed graduate.

CHESAPEAKE

Four out of Chesapeake's seven high schools - Grassfield, Great Bridge, Hickory, and Western Branch - had dropout rates below the state rate, ranging from 3.1 percent at Grassfield to 5.1 percent at Great Bridge.

The numbers were "pretty much in the ballpark of what we were expecting," said Patricia Powers, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.

Deep Creek High School had the highest dropout rate - 11.9 percent - in the city, with a 16.7 percent dropout rate for male students.

VIRGINIA BEACH

Virginia Beach schools had a lower dropout rate than 77 percent of the state's school divisions.

"Our schools have worked very hard on making sure students do have a chance to stay in school and graduate with the others," said Denise White, who oversees dropout prevention efforts.

Schools will be analyzing their individual results for areas to improve, White said. At First Colonial, Kempsville and Landstown high schools, for example, students with disabilities had dropout rates greater than 12 percent.

 Pilot writers Meghan Hoyer, Amy Jeter, Cheryl Ross, Lauren Roth and Alicia P.Q. Wittmeyer contributed to this report.

Hattie Brown Garrow, (757) 222-5562, hattie.brown@pilotonline.com