44 Percent of CPS Freshmen Don't Graduate

By Margaret Lyons in News on Feb 25, 2008 10:12PM

A new study released today says that 44 percent of CPS freshman don't graduate, and 73 percent of those drop-outs were "over age" when they started high school. While there's no one reason students drop out, there are a lot of factors that indicate how at-risk a kid is. From the Sun-Times:

According to the study, missing more than 10 days of school or failing two or more courses in the fall semester of freshman year; as well as earning fewer than five credits -- i.e., failing more than two core courses by the end of freshman year -- were predictors for high school dropouts.

Around 12,000 Chicago Public School high school students drop out each year. Girls are more likely to graduate than boys, and whites more likely than blacks. Critics of CPS's current model say the new study shows what plenty of other studies have also shown: kids who are left back are more likely to drop out than "similarly low-achieving" students who move on to the next grade.

A 2006 study from the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, which also funded this study, said most drop-outs cited five main reasons they left school: classes were boring, they missed too many days to catch up, they spent time with people who didn't care about school, they had too much freedom and not enough rules, and that they were failing in school anyway. According to that study,

Dropouts are much more likely than their peers who graduate to be unemployed, living in poverty, receiving public assistance, in prison, on death row, unhealthy, divorced, and ultimately single parents with children who drop out from high school themselves.... Four out of every 10 young adults (ages 16 – 24) lacking a high school diploma received some type of government assistance in 2001, and a dropout is more than eight times as likely to be in jail or prison as a person with at least a high school diploma.

CPS says its working on new strategies to graduate more students, including six schools getting dropout prevention specialists. [WBEZ, Trib, S-T, Gates Foundation, image from an abandoned CPS school by Katherine of Chicago]