WASHINGTON – A new report finds the number of high schools deemed “dropout factories” in the District rose dramatically in the past decade.
The Washington Examiner says the report released by the Alliance for Excellent Education and others shows that fewer than 61 percent of ninth-graders made it to senior year at 13 D.C. high schools in 2011 — a number of schools that’s 11 more compared to 2002.
The exact schools weren’t released, but D.C. also had 13 “dropout factories” in 2010 — five of which were charter schools and eight of which were public schools.
The Examiner says the number of “dropout factories” in Maryland also rose from 17 in 2002 to 22 in 2011, while the number in Virginia fell from 26 to 19 when comparing the same years.
One of the report’s authors tells the Examiner the increase in such schools could be due to the fact that the number of schools in general is greater. She also says poor record-keeping in the past by D.C. Public Schools officials may be a contributor.
