Graduation On Horizon For Local Seniors

BROOKSVILLE - With graduation looming, officials are hoping efforts to boost high school graduation rates will pay off in the numbers.

Hernando County graduations will take place at their respective schools at 7:30 p.m. on the following dates: Nature Coast Technical High School on June 4, Central High on June 5, Springstead High on June 9, Hernando High on June 10 and the adult education classes at Nature Coast High on May 29.

But not all of the students participating in their graduation ceremonies may actually be earning a diploma. Those who have not yet passed required portions of the FCAT will simply dress in their cap and gown, with the hope of passing the state test during the summer.

Though data showing the actual number of this year's graduating seniors won't be known until October - after statistics are reported in August - local officials are confident that Hernando County's numbers will be higher than previous years.

This is due largely to the district's new policy of offering seniors the opportunity to earn one full credit during summer school, giving many students the opportunity to graduate in the fall, student services director Jim Knight said.

"We did improve our graduation rate from the prior year just by offering summer school; we know that," he said.

A total of 19 students graduated this way last summer, and the district has doubled the number of remedial credits possible in summer school since then.

Districtwide, Hernando's graduation rate rose to 75.1 percent in 2006-07, increasing by 1 percent from the year before. The dropout rate also declined, dropping 1.6 percentage points to 3.3 percent, according to state figures released in November.

But while the numbers rose, they were still down from the 2003-04 school year, when Hernando County boasted a graduation rate of 79.5 percent.

Hernando's dropout rates were also considerably lower in 2002-03, with 1.9 percent of students dropping out.

Other initiatives put in place this year to address the dropout rate included meetings with school principals to address retention rates and making sure students who leave schools mid-year are "coded" correctly on state forms.

For example, if a student leaves a school mid-year and enrolls in the district's adult education center instead, her or she would have been labeled as a dropout, even though the students wasn't technically dropping out, Knight said.

With one career academy opening at each high school this fall, officials will also focus more on channeling noncollegiate-bound students into career academy programs.

"We're hoping the career academies will help 'hook' those students who want to pursue technical interests and give them a way to progress," Knight said.

Also, three of the district's four high schools - Hernando, Nature Coast and Central - also all increased the number of credits offered each year to seven. Since students only need 24 credits to graduate, this gives students more leeway, Knight said.

"I don't know if it will help drastically, but it will help," he said.

Students who are credit deficient may also participate in the district's General Education Development exit option program, which enables them to earn a regular high school diploma if they pass the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, GED and complete at least three classes in a vocational sequence.

While this option is currently only open to students who are two years behind their peers, officials hope to extend the program to students who are one year behind and offer it at all four of the district's high schools.

The estimated cost for implementation is about $100,000. Knight said he hopes to bring a plan before the school board for discussion soon.

The opening of the district's new high school in 2010 should also help reduce overcrowding. Smaller schools typically have better track records, Knight added.

Students who take five years to graduate or move out of the district are not counted in the state's statistics.

Statewide, the graduation rate rose to 72.4 percent in 2006-07, increasing by 1.4 percent from the previous year. Florida's annual high school dropout rate also declined, dropping 0.2 percentage points to 3.3 percent.

The Florida Department of Education bases its statistics on data that follows each student from ninth grade to graduation.

Hernando's scores for last year fared somewhere in the middle of other counties across the state: Brevard boasted the highest graduation rate with 92.1 percent, and Gadsden earned the lowest, with 53.3 percent.

The statistics stand in sharp contrast to those reported in a Johns Hopkins University study released in September, which referred to 1,700 high schools nationwide - including two in Hernando - as "dropout factories."

However, local officials negated the study's validity because it examined the differences between enrollment numbers, not the actual enrollment status of each student. For example, a student who transfers to different schools would have been counted as a dropout.

While Knight did not have the numbers for specific schools from 2007, here are the school-by-school numbers from 2005 and 2006:

At Hernando High, 62.2 percent of seniors graduated in 2005 and 68.6 percent in 2006.

At Springstead, 72.5 percent of seniors graduated in 2005 and 72.9 percent in 2006.

At Central, 67.4 percent graduated in 2005 and 65.7 percent graduated in 2006.

At Nature Coast, 74.9 percent graduated in 2005 and 74.9 percent graduated in 2006.