Dropout rate increases for Alleghany County schools

A total of 28 students dropped out of school during the 1999-2000 school year, an increase of seven over the year before.

According to figures released by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and the State Board of Education, the dropout rate for Alleghany rose just under two percent during the last school year. The figures show the dropout rate in 1998-99 was 4.63, with 21 students dropping out of school in grades 9-12.

That figure rose to 6.29, or 28 students dropping out, in 1999-2000. No students in grades 7-9 were reported as dropouts in the Alleghany County school system.

"Every student is an important part of that statistic," Superintendent Duane Davis said. "Each one of them is a story within itself that requires us to try any means possible to meet their needs.

"That really is a very disappointing figure," he added. Davis said the schools had been posting better numbers for the past two or three years, noting that perhaps this is the worst figure the school system has ever seen for dropouts.

"We put out a lot of effort and it sounds like we need to renew our efforts to encourage these young men and women to stay in school," he added. "In my opinion, we have a more critical need for students with a high school education than ever before.

"Any time (we) have a dropout, we have failed those students." "A lot of these students will go to Wilkes Community College to do their GED. What I'm concerned about is that at the high school they have a lot of people who are concerned about them and support them.

"At the college, they are responsible themselves to make it to class and do their work. It really worries me because they are used to having a support system."
 
 

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