new castle county education project

New Castle

County

Education

Project

Student Dropout, Busing and Charter School Project

A project conducted by Pritchett Associates with funding from the City of Wilmington and New Castle County

New Castle County Education Project

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Introduction

Dear Friends: As public servants, policy makers, parents, tax payers and voters, one of our highest callings is the protection and development of the children in the State of Delaware. From the moment a child first enters kindergarten, until he or she

successfully graduates from high school, we are tasked with providing the best education available. To ensure that our children learn the skills they need to

pursue higher education or to enter the workforce as competent employees, we must support our teachers and school administrators to make the necessary

changes that will advance the quality of education.

This research project examines busing patterns, high school dropout rates and charter school location decisions as they affect Wilmington youth. Are there

inequities in the system of busing high school students from Wilmington to suburban schools? Are high school dropout rates improving for Wilmington city youth? Are the location decisions made by potential and existing charter

schools taking in to account factors such as traffic patterns, neighborhood dynamics and needs-based assessments? As adults we have a responsibility

to the young residents of our City, that we must do all we can to ensure their equitable access to key resources. These resources include, first and

foremost, a quality educational experience that will prepare them for a successful future.

We hope that you find this report to be a useful tool as you craft collaborative efforts to improve the lives of young people in the State of Delaware.

Sincerely,

___________________________ __________________________________

Dennis P. Williams, Mayor Thomas P. Gordon, County Executive

City of Wilmington New Castle County Delaware


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Contents

Introduction Page 2

Executive Summary ..Pages 4 7

Busing Study .Pages 8 - 18

Dropout Study ..Pages19 36

Charter School Study ..Pages 37 61

References ...Pages 62 - 69


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Executive Summary

The genesis of this project was a collaborative letter written by County Executive

Thomas P. Gordon and Wilmington Mayor Dennis P. Williams. This letter, served as a clarion call to the alarming and increasing number of Wilmington public school students who are becoming dropouts, and the perceived inequities and disproportionate nature of the New Castle County public school student busing systems (Gordon, Williams, 2013). These two leaders stressed that they believe the dropout problem is one that will require new initiatives and

involvement from the community at large. A report was proposed, to study each of these factors,

as well as the controversy surrounding charter school location decisions. This report is the result

of a collaborative effort on the part of the following individuals:

Juanita and Maurice Pritchett, owners of Pritchett Associates, a professional consulting

firm; Wilmington Mayor Dennis P. Williams and New Castle County Executive Thomas P.

Gordon; Michael Harpe, Ed.D.; James Ruffin, Ed.D.; James Sills, Ed.D.; Sean Ellis, a University

of Delaware PhD graduate student; Gretchen Elhassani, a Wilmington University graduate

student; Dr. Jacqueline Jenkins, Office of the Mayor ~Chief Strategy Advisor and Samuel Guy,

Esq, Office of the County Executive~Deputy Chief Administrative Officer for their timely and

personal project support; Anthony Miller, of the Department Of Education for providing to our

team valuable New Castle County public school research data, and Fitina Dobson.

According to The News Journal, in 1976 all the districts were combined into one city

district where inner-city students were bussed to suburban schools. In 1981 this was decided to

be too cumbersome of a method, so the city was split among four separate districts: Brandywine,

Christina (district with the longest commute for students living within the city of Wilmington,

12-18 miles one way to the town of Newark), Colonial and Red Clay. (Solutions for Wilmington

Schools, 2015). The City of Wilmington lost the three high schools that had once served city

residents. Wilmington High became the Charter School of Wilmington; Howard High School

became a school of the Vocational Technical School District, and PS Dupont High School

became an elementary school in the Brandywine School District. Three of the middle schools

serving students, Bancroft, Warner and Bayard, became elementary schools. Burnett Middle

school was closed.

In 2014, Governor Jack Markell created the Wilmington Education Advisory Committee

to discuss education in the state of Delaware and to make recommendations for improvement.

The committee includes community leaders including past Mayor James Baker, local

representative Nnamdi Chukwuocha, parents, teachers, and Public Administration Analysts from

the University of Delaware. The interim report recommendations included pursuing a new vision for Wilmington charter schools. According to the interim report, the committee is concerned with:

1. Creating responsive governance 2. Meeting Wilmington student needs 3. Funding student success 4. Implementing change

This committee is already overseeing changes to the structure of the school districts


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serving Wilmington. As of the writing of this paper, the recommendations of this committee are

being held in the highest esteem.

Busing Study

This portion of the study was designed to examine the perceived inequities in the busing patterns

of high school students in northern New Castle County. The city of Wilmington is divided into

four school districts: Colonial, Christina, Brandywine and Red Clay. None of these school

districts currently operates a high school within city limits. As a result, all high school students

residing within the city of Wilmington commute by bus to a school located in the suburbs. This

research study revealed the following patterns:

Wilmington students residing in one school district may be attending a school much further away than another available public high school that is a part of a different school

district.

Due to the population density of the city, the number of bus stops per route students residing in the city of Wilmington sit through is fewer than the number of bus stops non-

Wilmington residents sit through.

Recommendations include:

1. Follow the recommendations of the WEAC committee to restructure the school districts serving the students in the city of Wilmington.

2. Continue dialog about reopening a traditional public high school within the city.

3. Create a common database for all students bussed in the city of Wilmington.

4. Build a sense of community.

5. Human relations specialists should be embedded in each traditional public high school that will receive students transferred due to redistricting.

6. Empower alumni organizations from the former Wilmington School District to assist with maintaining the schools history and cultural richness.

Dropout Study

This portion of the study was intended to investigate the problem of student dropouts and

stopouts in high school. The concern was that students from the city of Wilmington are dropping

out in much larger numbers than their suburban counterparts. This study extrapolated the group

of students residing in the city of Wilmington from statistics provided by each of the four school

districts. The dropout portion of this project unveiled the following trends:

For the year 2012-2013, the Department of Education (DOE) reports that of a total statewide enrollment of 38,613 students, 1,106 of them dropped out. 44.8% or almost

half were African American and 12.7% were Hispanic. There was 1% fewer student drop

outs than there were the year before.

Wilmington students have had a much higher percentage of drop outs and stop outs during the school year of 2011 and 2012, than the percentage of dropouts and stop outs of

non-Wilmington students.

Wilmington students were suspended more than non-Wilmington (suburban) students. Recommendations include:


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1. Establish a database of all Wilmington students enrolled in public K-12 schools.

2. Establish programs to enable youth to earn real money while still enrolled in high school.

3. Invest in programs that will build student growth, understanding and appreciation of the arts, technology, global dynamics and cultural heritage.

4. Collaborate with community entities to develop programs around parental involvement in schools.

5. Delaware Department of Education should take a leadership role in ensuring all school districts have dropout prevention programs in place.

Charter School Study

This portion of the study investigated the charter school movement in Delaware with

specific focus on the selection of location. 54 charter school applications, modifications and

renewals were reviewed, a survey was distributed to charter school teachers, parents and

administrators, and a series of key informant interviews was conducted with local leaders. The

charter school portion of this project highlighted the following findings:

Funding is a major factor in determining most charter school location decisions. Only 35% of the documents researched described how much money was allocated to facilities

costs.

Organizations and businesses provide support for a developing charters mission, vision and expansion. Only 3 out of 54 charter school applications provided information on the

community climate towards charter schools.

Sharing a neighborhood with a charter school seems to be overall a positive experience. 88% of survey respondents agreed that their school is in a safe location. 85% believe

their schools have a positive impact on the community.

Recommendations include:

1. Increase community awareness and involvement by requiring public notification of charter school meetings, and hold charter school meetings in local communities;

2. Require charter school applicants to establish a tentative location (building, community, enrollment area) prior to initial approval;

3. Increase financial and funding support options for charter school facilities/buildings.

Action Items

In addition, related to the above research findings, this study recommends the following

action items be taken. These action items are aimed at increasing the high school graduation

rates for students residing within the city of Wilmington by decreasing travel time, increasing

governmental and grassroots attention to the issue and decreasing the perceived discrepancies

between public traditional schools and public charter schools.

I. That the new Castle County school districts should institute new organizational


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systems for increasing financial resources, staff, and outreach counseling to former

students who have become drop outs and stop outs.

II. The Delaware Department of Education should provide leadership on this drop out issue with local school districts, comparable to what DOE leadership has done in

insisting upon higher academic performance from priority schools and charter

schools.

III. The Mayor of Wilmington should use his office to dramatize the student drop out and stop out problem, and to have civic and professional groups to take more ownership

of African American prospective drop outs by involving them in mentoring and big

brother and big sister type programs.

IV. The school boards of the four school districts in Wilmington should find a way to be flexible in adjusting their district boundaries, so as to allow some non district students

to attend schools within these four school districts, and in doing so, such students

could minimize or eliminate their busing time and travel.

V. In order for public schools to continue to get their fair share of governmental financial support, in competition with charter schools, it is suggested that there is going to be a

need for public school parents and advocates to present themselves as an aroused and

well organized political force to members of the Delaware General Assembly.

VI. It is further recommended that the leadership for this renewed activism should come from Wilmington Mayor Dennis Williams and New Castle County Executive Thomas

Gordon, with budgeted staff members to assist them in interacting with and

mobilizing PTA, Home / School Councils, teacher / educational groups, and others.

In closing, we hope that this report will provide inspiration and direction for educational

improvements in terms of addressing the long-term inequalities that prevent all New

Castle County students and especially Wilmington City students from receiving their best

possible education. .

Sincerely,

Executive Director~CoFounder

Pritchett Associates

President~CoFounder

Pritchett Associates

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Busing

Introduction

Wilmington is the largest city in

Delaware, with a population of 71,525

according to the 2013 Census. 24% of that

population consists of children under 18

years of age (Census, 2010). On any given

day, between the hours of 7 and 9 in the

morning, and 2 and 4 in the afternoon,

school busses can be seen traversing the

city, delivering students from home to

school and back again.

In the United States, 55.3% of all

students get to school by bus. The entire

country spends an estimated $17.5 billion

per year on school bus transportation.

Based on the average per-pupil expense and the average number of children per bus,

a school district saves an estimated $37,000

per school year by eliminating one bus

route (Safe Routes to School, 2015).

There are other arguments against

such heavy reliance on school busses. Safe

Routes to School is an organization that

attempts to promote active commutes to

school such as walking or riding bikes. This

mode of transportation would facilitate

better health in our nations youth, as well as cleaner air with a smaller price tag.

According to the website, returning to 1969 levels of walking and bicycling to school

would save 3.2 billion vehicle miles, 1.5

million tons of carbon dioxide and 89,000

tons of other pollutants equal to keeping more than 250,000 cars off the road for a

year (Safe Routes to School, 2015).

So why do so many students in

Wilmington take the bus, if there are health

and environmental factors working against

it? Supporters of busing maintain that it is

an affordable way to achieve school

desegregation. While admitting that the

initial start-up costs of a busing program can

be large, they point to statistics that indicate

the operating costs of compulsory busing are

generally less than five percent of a school

districts entire budget (Legal-distionary.thefreedictionary.com).

www.pics4learning.com

The History of Busing in

Delaware In 1954, Brown vs. the Board of

Education eliminated government mandated

segregation in schools, but enforcement of

the change was slow. In 1967, the last of the

official black and white school districts were

dismantled. However, this did not mean that

schools were effectively integrated. In

Evans v. Buchanan (1975), opinion stated

that we nevertheless conclude that governmental authorities are responsible to a

significant degree for the increasing

disparity in residential and school

populations between Wilmington and its

suburbs in the past two decades (Evans v. Buchanan, 1975).

According to The News Journal, in

1976 all the districts were combined into

one city district where inner-city students

were bussed for 9 years to suburban schools.

In 1981 this was decided to be too

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cumbersome of a method, so the city was

split among four separate districts:

Brandywine, Christina (district with the

longest commute, 12-18 miles one way to

the town of Newark), Colonial and Red

Clay. (Solutions for Wilmington Schools,

2015) The idea was to create four evenly

divided districts each well integrated within

its own district. The racial makeup of the

city was not changed; what changed was

that each of the four districts could now

point to more even statistics within its own

limits. Students living in the City were

bussed to the suburbs for 9 out of their12

years of schooling, until the Neighborhood

Schools Act (2000) brought students back to

local elementary schools. The City of

Wilmington lost the three high schools that

had once served city residents. Wilmington

High became the Charter School of

Wilmington; Howard High school became a

school of the Vocational Technical School

District, and PS Dupont High School

became an elementary school in the

Brandywine School District. Three of the

middle schools serving students, Bancroft

Warner and Bayard, became elementary

schools. Burnett Middle school was closed.

Public high school students are still bussed

out of the city as of the writing of this paper.

Opponents of busing claim that the

quality of education should supersede forced

desegregation. Neighborhood schoolsallow parents to have a greater influence on their childs education by making it easier, for example, to visit the

school and speak with a teacher. Such

schools also give children a sense of identity

and instill pride in their community (Legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com)

Purpose

This research is designed to answer a

number of related questions. How far do

students in Wilmington actually travel on a

daily basis to commute to school and back?

Are there differences in the commutes for

students residing within each of the four

school district feeder patterns? If there are

differences, are these differences fair, or do

students residing within one particular

feeder pattern commute much longer

distances than other students?

The Neighborhood School Act states

that all parents must be given the

opportunity to send their children to schools

in close proximity to where they live. Are

there schools that are closer to home that

students living in the city of Wilmington

might be enrolled in?

Also of interest, are broader

questions of the nature of student busing.

Was busing ever an answer to segregation?

Does busing our students out of the city

provide any meaningful advantage in their

lives or their educational careers? Should

the health and environmental benefits of

walking or bike riding factor into the

discussion at all? These questions may be

topics for further discussion, for additional

study or for political debate.

Problem Statement &

Research Objectives

Due to the fact that there is no traditional

public high school within the city of

Wilmington, and due to the fact that four

separate school districts serve the city

residents, all Wilmington high school

students must commute to the suburbs to

attend school. Researchers were interesting

in knowing more about these commutes.

Here are the research objectives for the

busing portion of this study:

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Do Wilmington students spend a longer time riding the bus than non-

Wilmington students?

Might the disparities in busing distances be contributing to student

behavioral problems?

Might there be a relationship between length of bus commute and

drop out decisions?

Is bringing a traditional public high school back to the city of

Wilmington a feasible option?

Literature Review

Two studies were undertaken

decades ago, one by Ruth Chambers Little

and another by R.L. Skrabanek. Both were

published in the journal Rural Sociology. These studies examined the relationship

between the distance a student must travel

on the bus each day, and factors such as the

students grades, extracurricular activities, behavioral problems and whether or not they

held offices in any clubs they might be

involved in. One study looked at elementary

school students and the other study looked at

high school students. Both studies did

discover that students who commuted over

13 miles to school by bus every day had at

least slightly lower grades than students who

did not commute. (Skrabanek, 1953; Little,

1944). This trend was found to be more

pronounced for elementary school students,

as the farther the students were from the school and the more time they spent in

transit, the lower were their grades relative

to their ability (Little, 1944). In this particular study, not only did researchers

look at the students overall grades, but they compared them to the students IQ scores. In this way, they could make the assumption

that students with a high IQ should be

getting As and Bs in class. What they found

was that the longer the elementary students

sat on the bus each day, the lower their

grades dropped with respect to their IQ

scores.

The high school study did not take

IQ scores into account, but found a similar

pattern among grades in general. Non-transported students were absent less

frequently, had higher grades and

participated in extracurricular activities to a

slightly greater extent than did students who

rode a bus to school (Skrabanek, 1953). The high school study also looked beyond

grades to extracurricular activities, clubs,

sports and student government activities.

This study found that students commuting

long distance by bus actually did hold

offices in clubs, and participated in

extracurricular activities. They were found

to have a lesser involvement in athletics,

lower grades and poor attendance records.

The lesson that may be learned from

these two studies is that busing students for

long distances, both in high school, middle

school and in elementary school, may have

an adverse effect on students, their grades,

health, attendance and activity in sporting

events.

This current study seeks to look at

the city of Wilmington students, their busing

patterns and the distances they travel in

order to shed some light on many of the

social and academic issues affecting

children living in the City of Wilmington the

local phenomenon. More research is needed

to bring these two older studies up to date.

Is the relationship between commuting

distances and grades still relevant? Does

this particular situation relate to Wilmington

Delaware and the thousands of inner-city

youth who are bussed to suburban schools?

Parental Involvement

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Undeniably, parental involvement is

another factor at work in every students life. The degree to which a students parent or parents are involved in their education is

a variable that may exert influence on a

students educational outcomes. Indeed, a study published in the American

Psychological Association in 2012 entitled

Why Does Parents Involvement Enhance Childrens Achievement? compared childrens perceptions of their parents involvement and compared that to grades in

both the United States and in China.

Children were asked to rate statements on a

1-10 scale with 1 being disagree and 10 being strongly agree. Statements included My parents help me with my homework when I ask, and My parents try to get to know the teachers at my school (Cheung, 2012). The answers to these questions were

then condensed into one numeric score with

the higher number indicating that a child

believed his or her parents were more

involved. These scores were then compared

both to grades, and to another indicator

which was designed to measure the students motivation for achievement. This parent-oriented motivation the study attempted to uncover was based on the theory that

children who believe their parents are

involved in their education will want to do

well in school to please their parents. The

study revealed that children who believed

their parents were highly involved did

receive better grades. Somewhat

circuitously, parents involvementpredicted heightened parent-oriented motivation among children. In

turn, childrens parent-oriented motivationpredicted heightened self-regulated learning. Childrens self-regulated learningpredicted enhanced grades among childrenover and above their earlier grades (Cheung, 2012).

http://www.theparentalinvolvementplace.com/whatis.html

While most literature agrees that

parental involvement in education is

important to the success of a student, the

question remains, what is parental

involvement? In a study entitled Making Success in Education: What Black Parents

Believe About Participation in their

Childrens Education researchers surveyed 14 African American parents out of a group

of more than 100 who participated in a

series of parent engagement workshops.

This study found that these parents they were involved at home and at school; they

took into consideration numerous ways of

being involved, from providing pep talks to

tutoring to more structure at home (Mickelson, 2011). Another obvious venue

for parental involvement is to attend events

at the school, or to participate in

parent/teacher conferences. The ability to

participate in parent/teacher conferences, to

cheer on a student at a sporting event or to

support the school in a Parent/Teacher

Organization (PTO) may be limited by a

parents mobility. Inner-city students who are bussed into the suburbs may not have

parents with regular access to a personal

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vehicle in order to attend school sponsored

events. Parents in the Mickelson study cited

other barriers to parental involvement

including relations with schools in which they do not feel invited or heard, and in

terms of their own limited resources such as

time available to assist their child and

support from spouses/ partners (Mickelson, 2011).

Commuting

For whatever purpose students are

bussed, be it desegregation, or attending a

charter school in another school district, the

fact remains that Wilmington students spend

time commuting. Wilmington high school

students especially spend time commuting

because there is no traditional public high

school within city limits. Safe Routes to

School cites the increase in childhood

obesity as being related to a decrease in

active transportation to school. Students

traveling up to 18 miles to school each day

do not have the option to walk or bike.

During the school day, only 4 percent of elementary schools and 8 percent of middle

school/junior high schools provide daily

physical education classes (Safe Routes to School, 2014). Students unable to

participate in active transportation (walking

or biking to school) lose out on a potential

60 minutes of activity per day. This is

significant enough to help a child maintain a

healthy weight throughout their childhood.

While the problems of desegregation

and maintaining high quality urban schools

are formidable, it seems that there are many

disadvantages to the current system of

busing students out of the city. These

disadvantages include detriments to the

health, both mental and physical, of the

students. It also remains to be seen whether

long distance busing is a contributing factor

in poor grades and a decreased involvement

in sports.

Graph 1 is a representation of the round trip average number of students per bus for the Christina,

Colonial, and Red Clay (AIHS, Dickinson, and McKean) school districts. As can be seen from the graph,

the difference between the number of student per route between Wilmington and Non-Wilmington

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students varies significantly per school district. This is likely due to differences in busing logistics

between the three school districts.

Methodology

In response to these concerns, busing

questionnaires were sent to officials of the

four New Castle County school districts.

These questionnaires asked how much time

(round trip) Wilmington and non-

Wilmington students spent on the bus.

Questions included how many bus miles

were traveled daily in these round trips, and

how many bus stops (for pick ups and drop

offs) there were in all of the bus routes, for

both Wilmington and non-Wilmington

students.

These questionnaires were submitted to

the districts three times. If, upon the third

request, information was not provided, that

information has been left out of this report.

The data collected in the tables following

this narrative is a summary of the

information successfully gathered. For

further studies, it would be useful

specifically to discover more information

pertaining to the Brandywine School

District. Of the three Brandywine high

schools, Mount Pleasant is located close to

the city on Washington Street Extension.

For example, if a student lived in a house on

Pine Street, in the Eastside of Wilmington,

they would be in the Christina School

District feeder pattern. They would go to

Newark High School, and commute 14.3

miles each way. They would not have the

choice to go to Mount Pleasant High School,

a much closer school at only 5 miles away.

According to state standardized test scores

in 10th grade, Mount Pleasant High School

was ranked 11th

in the State, while Newark

High School was ranked 16th

out of 39

entries.

(http://php.delawareonline.com/news/2013/s

chool-test-scores/) Students in Wilmington

do not have access to this higher ranking

school. In light of this, it would be

interesting to note Brandywine School

District busing statistics in as much detail as

the other school districts have offered.

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Graph 2 is a representation of the round trip average number of bus stops per route for the Christina,

Colonial, and Red Clay (AIHS, Dickinson, and McKean) school districts. As can be seen from the graph, Wilmington student routes in all three school districts have significantly fewer bus stops per route. This is

likely due to common busing logistics between the three school districts. There are fewer Wilmington

students in each of the three school districts than Non-Wilmington students, and Wilmington students

homes are more clustered together than Non-Wilmington students.

Conclusions

Tables provided at the end of this

report provide data on student busing for

each of the four school districts serving

Wilmington students. Data from these

tables is insightful as it reveals a comparison

of time and distance spent commuting for

Wilmington and non-Wilmington students.

For example, Wilmington students residing

in the Christina School District geographical

area spend an average of 30 miles round trip

on the bus as compared to non-Wilmington

students who travel an average of 19 miles

round trip.

Data indicates that some non-

Wilmington students may spend a longer

amount of time on the bus due to the

frequency of bus stops on suburban routes.

However, non-Wilmington students may

have other options as far as transportation,

including parental transport, walking,

biking, or purchasing a personal vehicle.

Wilmington students may not have as many

options. Taking the school bus is often the

only option for Wilmington students.

The Christina School District has no

high schools in its geographical portion of

Wilmington. High school students already

living in the Christina part of Wilmington

are therefore required to be bused to either

the Christina, Newark or Glasgow High

schools, almost 15 miles away from

Wilmington.

Were it not for the boundaries of the

four school districts within Wilmington, the

students being bused to Christina, Newark

and Glasgow High Schools conceivably

could have attended AI Dupont High School

(Red Clay School District), Mount Pleasant

High School (Brandywine School District)

or William Penn High School (Colonial

School District).

In short, Wilmington students

residing in one school district may be

attending a school much further away than

another available public high school that is a

part of a different school district. The

Neighborhood Schools Act was intended to

allow students to attend schools close to

home. In this respect, it seems that the

districting plan for the city of Wilmington is

currently at odds with this federal

legislation.

Recommendations and

Strategies

1. Reconfigure the schools the city districts serve.

In 2014, Governor Jack Markell

created the Wilmington Education Advisory

Committee (WEAC) to discuss education in

the state of Delaware and to make

recommendations for improvement. The

committee includes community leaders

including past Mayor James Baker, local

representative Nnamdi Chukwuocha,

parents, teachers, and Public Administration

Analysts from the University of Delaware.

The interim report recommendations

included reconfiguring the schools currently

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served by the school districts to eliminate Christina from the city.

Graph 3 is a representation of the round trip average travel time per bus route for the Christina, Colonial,

and Red Clay (AIHS, Dickinson, and McKean) school districts. As can be seen from the graph, Wilmington student routes in all three school districts take significantly less time to complete than Non-

Wilmington bus routes. It is important to note that there is a distinction between the time it takes to

complete a bus route and the amount of time the average student spends on a bus. The data provided by the three school districts was for the average round trip length of time it takes to complete a bus route for

Wilmington and Non-Wilmington students, not the average amount of time Wilmington and Non-

Wilmington students spend on the bus. This limits what can be said about the data. For example, the

average bus route for a Non-Wilmington student in the Christiana school district may take 39 minutes longer to complete than the average bus route for a Wilmington student, but that does not mean the

average Non-Wilmington student spends 39 more minutes on the bus than the average Wilmington

student does. On the Non-Wilmington bus route, three-quarters of the students could get off in the first ten minutes, while on the Wilmington bus route all of the students could get off in the last ten minutes.

The average round trip length of time it takes to complete a bus route is not necessarily an accurate proxy

for the average amount of time a student spends on the bus. Further, the data presented in this report does not account for the options other than taking the bus, such as their parents driving them to school, that

some students may have. Knowing the percentage of Wilmington and Non-Wilmington students who

could be bused, but commute to school using a different mode of transportation could be useful in

determining the effect of busing on the drop out and stop out rates of Wilmington and Non-Wilmington students.

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Some of the previously noted busing

problems would be eliminated or at least

minimized if current pending legislation in

the Delaware General Assembly to

reconfigure the school districts in

Wilmington were to be adopted.

2. Continue the dialog concerning the opening of a traditional

public high school within the

city of Wilmington.

Since the closing of Wilmington

High School and the utilization of its facility

as a charter school and a magnet school for

the arts, there is currently no traditional

public high school located within the

Wilmington city limits. The opening of a

new public high school for Wilmington city

students, within the city limits, is a topic of

interest. Representative Earl Jaques, in a

statement to the News Journal, said: Its time to resurrect Wilmington High School,

the Red Devils. Those children deserve it,

their parents deserve it and we need it to

move forward (Offredo, 2015). Since the old Wilmington High School facility is

being used, and since functional facilities

are costly and in short supply, it is

recommended that any appropriate facility

that becomes available within the next few

years be first considered for this purpose

before being sold to a charter or private

school or other business or private entity.

3. Create a common database for all students bussed in the city

of Wilmington.

In this way a study of busing of all

Wilmington students across all four school

districts could be achieved. That database

should be uniform and interconnected.

Researchers looking at this database should

be able to see the same data sets across

each of the four school districts. It should

be interconnected because families are

spread out across school district lines.

4. Build a sense of community

One of the things lost with the

Wilmington high schools was a sense of

community. High school sports rivalries

brought students, families and fans out to

support their home teams. In a paper

entitled The Lost High Schools, researchers described the process by which

the city of Wilmington lost all of its high

schools, and the affects that the changes had

on the lives and motivation of those living in

the Wilmington had on the community. At our high school, black kids, white kids or

Jewish kids never worried about race. You

know what we worried about? Beating

Wilmington High, beating De La Warr,

beating Howard or beating Salies (Prado, 2006). The paper goes on to quote Daniel

Young, Alumnus of P.S. Dupont The court order destroyed the cross-town rivalry. It

destroyed the fact that the city of

Wilmington had high schools, he said. When they were gone, they were gone. And when they left, you know what left with

them? A sense of belonging, a sense of

pride. (Prado, 2006).

According to Dr. Jenny Fremlin,

there are four factors that influence the sense

of community: membership, influence,

integration & fulfillment of needs and

shared emotional connection (Fremlin,

2006). These factors can be consciously

built through grassroots organizations that

bring ordinary people together every day.

One example of a community

building venture is a community school.

According to the Childrens Aid Society, a community school is a strategy for

17

organizing the resources of the school and

the community around student success. It is

both a place and a set of partnerships

between the school and other community

resources (Childrens Aid Society, 2015). Community Schools bring parents, family

members and community members into the

schools to participate in both fun and

educational events. Schools are open for

community events such as bake-offs, crime

prevention meetings, basketball games and

parenting workshops. An example of a

community school in Wilmington is F.D.

Stubbs Elementary school, where the Me and My Dad Got Game basketball tournaments attract families from across the

city. The Community School at Stubbs was

developed through a partnership with

Children & Families First.

5. Human relations specialists should be embedded in each

traditional public high school

that will receive students

transferred due to

redistricting.

Due to the WEAC committees recommendation, steps are being taken to

redraw school district lines within the city of

Wilmington. This will necessarily result in

a number of students being transferred from

one high school or middle school to another.

This experience mirrors the one that Daniel

Young spoke of in the paper, The Lost High Schools. He laments the fact that he had to transfer out of the high school he was

accustomed to, and was forced to re-learn

the culture of a second, unfamiliar high

school (Prado, 2006). This experience will

be shared by Wilmington students who will

be taken out of Christina school district high

schools such as Newark High School, and

reassigned to either Red Clay or Brandywine

School district high schools, following the

plan that will eventually be laid down. In

this event, human relations specialists must

be on hand to assist with the transition. New

students and their families will need help

understanding the rules of the new school

district. Students may need help integrating

into sports teams at the new school,

choosing afterschool activities, navigating

lunchroom dynamics, making new friends,

dealing with existing cliques.

6. Empower alumni organizations to assist with maintaining

school pride.

One of the things lost with the

closing and transforming of the high schools

in the city of Wilmington was a sense of

pride. Conrad High School is one example

of a high school that underwent a

transformation into a school of science

within the Red Clay school district. While

no longer a traditional public high school,

this school still maintains an active alumni

organization. This organization has a great

say in the building usage, for example,

community groups who are invited into the

school for presentations. They maintain a

marching band with traditional school colors

for participation in community events. In a

sense, the alumni are still a presence in the

school and in the community in a unique

way. Alumni groups from the other

Wilmington high schools, Wilmington,

Howard, and Dupont, are encouraged to

speak up. By coming together in celebration

of their alma maters, alumni may be able to

restore a sense of community to the area.

18

Graph 4 is a representation of the round trip average travel distance per bus route for the Christina, Colonial, and Red Clay (AIHS, Dickinson, and McKean) school districts. As can be seen from the graph,

the difference between the round trip average travel distance per bus route between Wilmington and Non-

Wilmington students varies significantly per school district. This is likely due to differences in busing logistics per school district, and in the case of Red Clay, per school. It is important to note that there is a

distinction between the total distance a bus route covers and the average distance between a Wilmington

and Non-Wilmington students home and their school. The data provided by the three school districts was for the round trip average travel distance per bus route for Wilmington and Non-Wilmington students, not

the average distance between a Wilmington or Non-Wilmington students home and their school. Further,

similar to travel time per bus route, the physical length of a students bus route is not an accurate proxy for the average amount of time a student spends on the bus.

19

Dropout

Introduction

Weve all been there; high school feels like its going to go on forever. Gossip and click behavior permeate even the

advanced level classes. Sometimes a

student is more worried about getting

jumped in the parking lot than passing that

algebra test 4th period. Decisions carry real

weight when children reach high school, and

even though statistics warn them otherwise,

it can be hard to see the advantage of

remaining within a seemingly exploitative

system for an additional 2 or 3 years. Those

of us who graduate put it behind us, going

on to college and careers and families of our

own. For the youth who decide to quit

school before graduation, the future is not so

bright.

In this report, both factors related to

the decision to drop out, and factors related

to the effects of dropping out will be

discussed. Protective factors need to be

touched on as well. Students matter in the

lives of their friends, parents and teachers.

They are not merely a group to be studied,

but individuals struggling to do the right

thing for themselves. Sometimes it may not

be clear to them what the right thing is.

Parental Involvement

Parental Involvement can be a

protective factor. In its Parent Brief, the National Center on Secondary Education

and Transition states that family involvement is one of the most important

contributors to school completion and

success (Parent Brief, 2006). NCSET suggests that parents can use the following

strategies to help support their high school

student: maintain contact with the teachers,

monitor school attendance, encourage the

student to participate in extracurricular

activities or employment, help the student

explore career options that interest them,

talk to the student about the effects of

dropping out and keep track of the credits he

or she needs to graduate. If there is a

problem, a proactive parent has a number of

options. Parents are encouraged to discuss

their concerns with the students IEP (Individualized Education Program) or 504

team, if appropriate. Parents are encouraged

to see about getting a tutor for their student,

there are paid and volunteer options. If the

student is having trouble in a particular

class, parents are encouraged to meet with

the teacher to see if there is a personality

clash or other misunderstanding affecting

the quality of the students work. Parents who believe their student may have a drug

or alcohol problem are encouraged to seek

out community based support services.

Finally, if a student is truly in danger of

dropping out of a particular school, parents

are encouraged to explore alternative school

settings. Options include magnet schools, alternative schools, charter schools, work-

based learning programs, career academies,

and GED programs (Parent Brief, 2006).

These options are available to

parents across socio-economic boundaries.

All that is required is for an adult to care

about and be willing to invest the time and

energy into monitoring student achievement.

Unfortunately, this is not always the case.

Parents may find themselves without the

necessary time or understanding to devote to

their childrens education. Students may find themselves without the necessary caring

advocate required to navigate this complex

system.

Purpose

Dropping out of high school is

associated with many negative consequences

20

for the individual, the individuals family, and the community. A recent U.S.

Department of Education Study (Chapman,

2011) reported that the middle point in the

range of income (median) of persons ages

18 through 67 who had not completed high

school was roughly $25,000 in 2009. This

compares to a median income of $43,000 for

those in the same age group who had earned

a high school diploma or a General

Educational Development (GED) certificate.

Over an average lifetime, this difference

amounts to approximately $630,000 of lost

income for those who dropped out. There

are other consequences as well. Those age

25 and older who dropped out report being

in worse health than adults who did not drop

out, and those who did not finish high

school also make up disproportionately

higher percentages of the nations prison population. This same U.S. Department of

Education study cited research by Levin and

Belfield (Levin, 2007) which found that the

average person who dropped out of high

school costs the economy approximately

$240,000 over his or her lifetime in terms of

lower tax contributions, higher reliance on

Medicaid and Medicare, higher rates of

criminal activity, and higher reliance on

welfare. Across the United States, a total of

514, 238 students dropped out of grades 9-

12, resulting in a calculated overall dropout

rate of 3.4% in 2009-2010 (Stinllenel and

sable, 2013 p.4).

classroomclipart.com

For the year 2012-2013, the

Department of Education (DOE) reports that

of a total statewide enrollment of 38,613

students, 1,106 of them dropped out. 44.8%

or almost half were African American and

12.7% were Hispanic. There were 1% fewer

student drop outs than there were the year

before.

Feeling safe and connected to

teachers and peers at school is associated

with higher graduation rates and lower

dropout rates. Conversely, lack of social

and emotional engagement with school is

associated with lower grades, depression,

delinquency and drug use (Li, 2011). This

study will provide an opportunity to identify

some of the reasons that dropouts have for

leaving school, as well as provide

information to hopefully engage the entire

school community in a discussion of

possible strategies and solutions to the

pressing issue of student dropouts.

Problem Statement

(including research

objectives)

The Department of Education

defines dropping out as any student who is still enrolled at the end of a particular school

year; who has not graduated or transferred,

and who has not re-enrolled or re-registered

for school at the beginning of the next

school year. To attain this DOE label of

student drop out, the student would have had

to be enrolled at the end of the last school

year, and would have failed to re-register for

school by the beginning of the next school

year.

It is important to be aware that the

Delaware DOE in its 2011 annual student

21

drop out report expressly documented that

only 15% of its schools statewide had taken

any initiative to determine how many

students had dropped out during the school

year. It is as if the students who dropped

out vanished and educators were not

alarmed.

In light of these facts, it is desirable

to expand upon the statistics offered by the

Department of Education. The 1%

reduction in dropout rates from the 2011/12

school year to the 2012/13 school year is

confusing. What does it mean? Is it merely

a natural fluctuation instead of a trend? Are

these students who end their educational

careers contributing to the crime problem?

Might services for drop out prevention assist

in crime prevention as well?

The fact is that the New Castle

County public school systems and DOE do

not have an adequate data system in place

for determining the major contributing

factors to the student drop-out problem.

There is, to date, no information specific to

high school students residing within the

Wilmington city limits. Because

Wilmington is divided into four school

districts, and each district reports only on its

own data, Wilmington student statistics are

enmeshed with suburban statistics. In order

to understand how Wilmington students as a

group are performing in school and what the

high school drop out rates look like for city

students, innovative solutions are needed.

This research seeks to uncover the

high school dropout rates for the city of

Wilmington students as a group independent

of the surrounding suburbs. This research

also seeks to uncover reasons why students

choose to drop out of high school.

For the purposes of this research, the

Department of Education definition of a

High School Dropout, as a person who fails to re-register for school in autumn, was

viewed as limiting. Might there be

individuals who have not told anyone, who

have made no formal gesture as dramatic as

failing to register, who simply dont show up for class? These students, who are

considered stop outs, are not captured by the current data collection systems. They

will be discussed as a group in addition to

the more traditional drop outs.

Literature Review

Literature on high school dropout

rates focus mainly on two aspects of the

issue: the reasons students choose to drop

out, and the effects that the choice to drop

out has on their lives and the community.

This research project seeks the same

answers within the geographical outlines of

the city of Wilmington.

Causes

Researchers, politicians and parents

alike seek to understand what causes a

student to drop out of high school. If this

dimension of the issue can be understood,

then policies can be put in place to

encourage students to remain in school. If

dropping out is a symptom of a larger issue

such as poor health, lack of support, or

school climate, then the root cause must be

addressed first. Only after clearing the

obstacles facing youth in Wilmington can

there be hope of a diminished high school

drop out rate.

Motivation

In a paper entitled School Motivation and High School Dropout: The

Mediating Role of Educational

Expectation, W. Fan and C. Wolters describe a study conducted with high school

22

students in Texas. In 10th grade, they

delivered a survey to 16,194 students. The

survey asked questions designed to probe

each students educational expectations. Sample questions included: I am confident that I can do an excellent job on English

assignments. And I get totally absorbed in math. A key question related to the students desire to continue their education, asking I expect to complete (1) less than high school graduation (2) high school

graduation only, (3) attend or complete a 2-

year school course in a community or

vocational school, (4) attend college(5) graduate from college, (6) obtain a masters degree(7) obtain a Ph.D., M.D. or other advanced degree (Fan, 2012).

Two years later, when this group of

students would be in their senior year, 896

of them were found to have dropped out.

This group contained a higher percentage of

African American and Hispanic students, as

related to the percentages of their overall

population in the sample. In addition to

these well documented statistics, the study

also found that among the students who had

dropped out, the average indicated that they

anticipated attending college but not

graduating. The average student who

remained in high school anticipated

graduating from college. Students who

remained in school also scored higher on

their assessments of their own abilities in

English and math. Interestingly, the

questions relating to whether or not students

enjoyed reading or math seemed to have no

relation to the decision to remain in school

(Fan, 2012).

While this study does not point to a

cause for the drop out problem, it does paint a convincing picture of a correlation.

Perhaps students in danger of dropping out

might be discovered early on while

interventions still stand a chance of success.

Urban vs. Rural

In another cause-related study,

Jeffrey Jordan and Genti Kostandini looked

at nationwide drop out statistics to determine

if there was a statistically significant

difference between rural and urban drop out

rates. Their study concluded that once family attributes are accounted for,

differences in rural and urban areas are

small and narrowing (Jordan, 2012). These family attributes they mention include

gender, the presence of biological parents,

and maternal attributes, most likely to be the

mothers educational attainment. This may be true, as are the statistics surrounding race

and ethnicity. Together, they certainly paint

a grim picture for African American and

Hispanic young men with absent or

uneducated parents.

Classroomclipart.com

Testing

Another cause related item that the taxpayers have more control over is the

school climate. With now more than a

decade of high stakes accountability in the

classroom, students are being tested more

than ever. Tests are used not only for

improvement in student lesson planning, for

charting a students growth over time, or even for purposes of marking a students report card with a A or an F. These federal

tests are used to judge teachers. Those

23

teachers whose students receive higher

scores get monetary bonuses, while teachers

whose students fail may face dismissal.

Schools in which students perform highly

receive accolades, while schools in which

students fail to meet standards are closed. In

a very real sense, peoples jobs are on the line. It would be nice to believe that all this

was being done in order to bolster the

achievement of the students, to provide them

with more knowledge and innovation in the

class room. One study out of Texas had a

very different story to tell.

In Avoidable Losses: High Stakes Accountability and the dropout crisis, researchers documented a system set up to

provide the high test scores teachers and

school administration were looking for, at

the expense of the students. In the early

years of No Child Left Behind, the state

mandated a test for high school students in

10th grade. Originally, many students failed.

In order to assure that students did well on

the 10th grade test, through a loophole,

schools were able to hold children back in

9th grade. This led to an increase in 9

th

grade retentions. African American and

Latino children were held back in some

instances at a rate of 30% per class. In some

instances, students were forced to repeat 9th

grade more than once. This resulted in a

higher rate of dropouts for those students

who were retained, but since they dropped

out in 9th

grade, they did not count in the

state statistics for 12th grade dropouts. They

were called withdrawing students. This created a system where more 10

th graders

scored well on the test, fewer 12th graders

dropped out and more 12th graders

completed high school. This also resulted in

a disproportionate number of African

American and Hispanic students repeating

the 9th

grade, dropping out young and never

returning (McNeil, 2008).

In another related study, Steven

Hemelt and Dave Marcotte investigated the

effects of High School Exit Exams. These

standardized tests are in wide use across the

country, but have not come to Delaware yet.

In a paper entitled High School Exit Exams and Dropout in an Era of Increased

Accountability, these two researchers discovered that HSEEs increase dropout rates for students in the 12

th grade, with

especially large effects for African-

American students (Hemelt, 2013).

These standardized tests are big

business. Smarter Balanced, the new test

being rolled out in Delaware, estimates its

cost to be approximately $22-$27 per

student. According to the Smarter Balanced

website, students in grades 3-8, and 11th

grade will take the test. From the Delaware

Department of Education statistics for the

school year 2014-2015, there are 70,725

public school students enrolled in those

grades. That equals anywhere from

$1,555,950 to $1,909,575 per year. This,

and according to the Smarter Balance

website, These costs are estimates because a sizable portion of the cost is for test

administration and scoring services that will

not be provided by Smarter Balanced; states

will either provide these services directly or

procure them from vendors in the private

sector (http://www.smarterbalanced.org/).

Recent legislation was passed in

Delaware to allow parents to opt their

children out of the Smarter Balanced. The bill, opposed by Delaware Gov. Jack

Markell, passed 36-3, with two lawmakers

absent (Starkey, 2015). This important

24

piece of legislation still demands that

parents be aware of testing in the schools,

and take preventative action to exempt their

children. In sum, youth will still need a

vocal advocate in the form of a parent or

guardian, or they will be mandated to take

the test.

Health

Another set of researches conducted

a study looking at health and drop out rates.

In Adolescent Health and High School Dropout: A Prospective Cohort Study of

9000 Norwegian Adolescents, researchers tracked both physical and mental health in

Norwegian youth. The health issues that

they looked at were asthma, diabetes,

migraines, epilepsy, chronic instances of

such things as neck and shoulder pain,

stomach pain, insomnia and obesity. What

they found was that all explored health dimensions were strongly associated with

high school dropout (De Ridder, 2013). They conclude that although school dropout is strongly related to family-level

factors, also siblings with poor health have

reduced opportunity to complete high school

compared to healthy siblings. Public health

policy should focus on ensuring young

people with poor health the best attainable

education (De Ridder, 2013).

Gender Differences

There is no one all encompassing

reason children drop out of high school.

Each student is different. There are some

trends that can be seen, however.

Historically, some female students have

been driven to drop out of school due to an

unplanned pregnancy. Some male students

cut their education short to pursue full time

employment. Are these historical trends still

relevant today? Is the rational for dropping

out so cleanly divided across gender lines?

In a web posting for the Intercultural

Development Research Association, Anita

Revilla explains some of the reasons modern

girls drop out of high school. She states that

while pregnancy is still a factor in up to 40%

of female drop out decisions, it is not the

overriding factor in most decisions. This

research discovered that sexism is a major

contributor in the decision to drop out of

school. Many young women feel that their

educational goals are not supported by

family and faculty at the same level as their

male peers. If a girl believes that no one cares, then she too will stop caring about

herself and her involvement in school (Revilla, 2015).

In a paper entitled Graduating Black Males, Dr. Edward Bell describes the dropout rate for young black men. The nation graduates only 47% of Black males

who enter the 9th grade (Bell, 2014). This

study cited that only 26% of the participants

in the study left school for academic

reasons. The remaining 73% of students left

school due to medical needs, peer pressure, loss of focus, home problems and hanging

out with friends (Bell, 2014). These findings are important as they point to

factors that are not necessarily within the

control of the school system. In conclusion,

Dr. Bell states that having rigorous academic standards and a relevant

curriculum without building strong social

and/or cultural opportunities will net the

same results (Bell, 2014).

Effects

A second aspect of the dropout

problem that many researchers and policy

makers seek to understand is the effect it has

on an individual and on the community.

Often examined are the tax dollars at stake,

the lost wages from better-paid positions

high school dropouts find themselves

25

ineligible for. In High School Dropouts in Emerging Adulthood: Substance Use,

Mental Health Problems, and Crime, researchers compared a sample of high

school dropouts nationwide to a sample of

high school graduates. They found that

dropouts were more likely to smoke

cigarettes, and incur all the negative health

effects and early disease and death

associated with that behavior. Dropouts

were more likely to have been arrested for larceny, assault, drug possession or drug

sales relative to their high school graduate

counterparts (Maynard, 2014).

Without making any conclusions

about cause and effect, one can say in light

of these various studies, that the decision to

drop out of high school seems to be related

to race and gender, family functionality,

health, individual motivation and possibly

school climate. Further, the act of dropping

out seems to be related to poor health

decisions such as smoking and drug use, low

wages and incarceration. With these grim

findings, the act to save but one person from

these circumstances would seem to be

warranted.

Methodology

Researchers looked at Delaware

Department of Education data from the four

school districts serving Wilmington

students: Red Clay, Brandywine, Colonial

and Christina. Data collected was from the

2011-2012 school year.

Postal zip codes were used to collect

data on Wilmington students. As each of

the four districts serves a portion of the city

of Wilmington, and each of the four

districts reports their statistics separately,

there is no database of information

regarding only Wilmington students.

Researchers believe that the public needs to

know the educational status of Wilmington

students, in relation to the status of non-

Wilmington students in a de jure racially

integrated school system. That is a system

that is integrated by law, but may not be

integrated in practice. A combined

Wilmington and non-Wilmington student

classification file was extracted from

DOEs database. Researchers then extrapolated Wilmington students, looking

at drop out rates, race, gender and student

test scores among other things.

After collecting this data, researchers

looked at the number and percentage of

dropouts who exhibited certain

characteristics such as participation in

special education classes, or suspensions.

Using statistical analysis equations,

researchers then determined if these

relationships were statistically significant.

This is a way to determine whether two

things are in fact related, or if what looks

like a relationship, or people think might be a relationship, is actually not. For

example, it may seem that more people like

Product A than Product B because people

who like Product A cant stop talking about it. When a statistical analysis is completed,

showing that only 2 more people actually

chose Product A, out of a sample of 500

people, the conclusion can be drawn that

people dont actually prefer Product A. That data preferring Product A is

statistically insignificant. Researchers look

for an agreed upon level of significance, usually at .05 or .1%.

Conclusions

The tables at the end of this section

provide descriptive data about the nature and

characteristics of the Wilmington and non-

Wilmington students who were enrolled (as

of the school years 2011 and 2012) in the

four New Castle County school districts.

26

Before getting to the details of the data base,

it should be noted here that in the Delaware

Department of Education data, only students

in the classes of 2011 and 2012 were

included (students who entered high school

in September of 2007 and 2008). After

eliminating the 245 students that were not in

the Brandywine, Christina, Colonial, and

Red Clay school districts, and after

removing the 173 students whose residency

could not be determined, there were 8,030

students in this studys analysis.

In Table #1 which follows there is a

demographic break down of all students

from the four New Castle county school

districts on the bases of school year, race,

gender, school district, dropout status, and

other pertinent educational variables.

In the DOE data, Hispanic is treated as an ethnicity and not a race.

Students who belong to the race

category Black, White and Others

can also belong to the ethnicity

category Hispanic.

Students who are multiracial belong to the Other category, even if one of their races is Black and / or White.

The Red Clay School District, during the school year 2011 and 2012 had

the highest percentage of

Wilmington students enrolled at

39.2% and Colonial had the lowest

percentage of Wilmington Students

at 2.3% Colonial no longer has

schools located in its Wilmington

geographical area.

The student stop out rate among Wilmington students during the

school years of 2011 and 2012 was

higher at 15.8% than the dropout rate

of Wilmington students at 11.6%.

The combined dropout and stop out

for both categories was 27.4%

The percentage of Wilmington students receiving free or reduced

lunch was 84%

Stopped Out

Students who are considered

stopped out are students who simply dont show up for class, but are not captured by

the drop out statistics because they havent failed to register for class. Out of 8,030

students, 833 or 10.4% stopped out of

school. Of these 833 students, 221 or 26.5%

were Wilmington residents and 612 or

73.5% were non-Wilmington residents.

Dropped Out

Out of 8,030 students, 551 or 6.9%

dropped out. Of these 551 students, 162 or

29.4% were Wilmington residents and 389

or 70.6% were non-Wilmington residents.

The Red Clay School District and the Christiana School District for school

years 2011 and 2012 had much

higher raw numbers of dropouts and

stop outs with a combined 919

students, verses student dropouts and

stop outs from the Colonial and

Brandywine school districts, with a

combined 465 students.

Both Wilmington and non-Wilmington students are more prone

to dropping out and stopping out of

school when they are in the 16 to 17

age range, and when they are in

grades 9th and 10

th.

Wilmington students have had a much higher percentage of drop outs

and stop outs during the school year

27

of 2011 and 2012, than the

percentage of dropouts and stop outs

of non-Wilmington students.

Of the Wilmington students who dropped out of school during the

school years of 2011 and 2012,

76.5% were black, compared to a

Hispanic student drop out rate of

18.5%. Of the Wilmington students

who stopped out of school during

this same time span, 77.8% were

Black, compared to a Hispanic stop-

out rate of 17.2%.

As to be expected, there were a

number of documented factors which were

related to and / or contributing to student

dropout and stop outs during their high

school years. These are the categories of

disabilities; math and reading scores,

attendance and discipline and are noted in

the following tables of #9, #10, #11 and #12,

#13 and #14.

An independent test was performed

to see if there was a statistically significant

difference between all Wilmington and Non-

Wilmington students math and reading test scores. As can be seen in Table #11, the

difference in Math and Reading test scores

between all Wilmington and Non-

Wilmington students, for grades 8 through

10, is statistically significant. In other

words, Wilmington students average math and reading test scores really are lower than

non- Wilmington students test scores for 8th through 10

th grade.



difference between all Wilmington and non-

Wilmington students unexcused and excused absences. As can be seen in Table

#13 the differences between Wilmington

and non-Wilmington students unexcused

absences throughout all grades (and excused

absences in 11th

grade) are significant. In

other words, Wilmington students unexcused absences in 9

th through 12

th grade

and excused absences in 11th

grade really are

higher than non-Wilmington students. However, there is no statistically significant

difference between Wilmington and non-

Wilmington students excused absences in 9

th, 10

th, and 12

th grades.



difference between the numbers of school

days all Wilmington and non-Wilmington

students were suspended in grades 9 through

12. As can be seen in Table #15, the

differences between the number of school

days Wilmington and non-Wilmington

students were suspended in grades 9 through

12 (both in-school and out-of-school

suspensions) are significant. In other words,

Wilmington students were suspended more

than non-Wilmington students (Table #14).

The primary point highlighted in the

aforementioned statistics is that the number

of school days a student attends, the number

of schools days missed due to suspensions,

and a students academic achievement may be contributing factors in the decision to

stop or drop out of school. The more days of

school that a student attends and the better a

student does academically the less likely

they are to stop out or dropout of school.

While the more days missed due to

suspensions, the more likely a student is to

stop out or dropout of school.

Table #12 is about student

attendance as measured by the categories of

unexcused and excused absences. It can be

observed that Wilmington students, from the

9th grade to the 12

th grade had almost twice

the number of unexcused absences as did the

non-Wilmington students. Under the

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excused absence category, there were no

significant differences between the

Wilmington students and the non-

Wilmington students.

Recommendations and

Strategies

1. Establish a database of all Wilmington students enrolled in

public K-12 schools.

After conducting the research for the

dropout/stopout study, researchers have

come to the conclusion that a database

devoted to Wilmington city students would

be useful for schools, researchers and policy

makers alike. Without such a database,

policy makers must rely on postal zip codes

to extrapolate data about Wilmington

students. The data contained in this report is

important because it sheds light on

inequalities between students in the city of

Wilmington and their suburban counterparts.

This information may help shape policy and

hopefully help inform school district

administrators.

In the portion of this study

researching charter schools in Wilmington, a

central database of all students within the

city would be an invaluable tool for the

Department of Education as well as

individual charter school board members.

Instead of opening a charter to pursue a

mission, a real analysis of the need for a

particular school in a particular location

could be more easily conducted.

2. Establish programs to enable youth to earn real money while

still enrolled in high school.

This paper has discussed many

different reasons students choose to drop out

or stop out of high school. Some of these

reasons discussed include lack of teacher

and administrative support, a hostile testing

environment, poor health, retention and low

academic achievement. Inherent in many of

these obstacles is a lack of self esteem and

self respect. This lack of self respect may

come from performing poorly on tests or in

class, from having obvious signs of poor

health such as obesity or asthma. Dropping

out of high school may be seen as a way to

regain some of this self respect, as it

involves turning ones back on an

unsuccessful venture.

Historically, another major reason

for failing to complete high school is the

need for employment. According to the

National Center for Education

Statistics,44% of high school student drop

outs are employed, 18.1% are looking for a

job, and only 37.1% are not in the labor force (National Center for Education Statistics). A well-paying job can often

provide a measure of self worth and self

respect, in addition to much needed revenue.

According to a paper entitled High School Dropouts in Emerging Adulthood:

Substance Use, Mental Health Problems and

Crime, researcher Brandy Maynard suggests programs within schools that will

pay students actual money as they earn class

credit. In this way, students will be able to

build up their self image, contribute to their

family finances, and remain on track to

graduate all at the same time.

Several programs like this are in

operation in different parts of the country.

In Indianapolis, the non-profit Dreamapolis

offers a Young Dreamers program that operates within Arsenal Tech High School.

An example of a student project is a vending

machine, which the student operates

independently during class time. The

student learns the business aspect of the

29

venture, and is allowed to keep the profits

(Glavan, 2014).

In Missouri, the Spark! Incubator

program takes students to an incubator off campus where they design and develop their

own businesses. Student businesses range

from app creation to babysitting and fashion

design. Students work within class time to

develop their businesses, create marketing

plans and learn finances. Community

members mentor the students and real

investors hear pitches and have made sizable

investments (Pannoni, 2015).

3. Invest in pregnancy prevention programs.

Despite findings that state the pregnancy

is not the sole reason young women drop out

of high school, it remains a significant one.

By ensuring that fewer girls find themselves

with an unwanted pregnancy so early in life,

we can create more opportunity for those

women to graduate. Dr. Michael Carrera

has worked with the Childrens Aid Society to develop a seven-days-a-week program

entitled Carrera Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program. Programs are available to all schools, traditional public

and charter public schools, including one

currently operating at the West End

Neighborhood House in Wilmington,

Delaware.

4. Build self esteem.

One reason cited that girls may drop out

of high school is due to a lack of confidence

in themselves and their academic goals. In

the literature review we discussed this as an

inherent sexism in the system that places

little emphasis on the education of women.

Girls Rock Camps are designed to foster

young female talent through music. Girls Rock Camps help girls build self-esteem and

find their voices through unique

programming that combines music

education and performance, empowerment

and social justice workshops (Girls Rock Camp Alliance, 2015). These camps are

typically for a weekend, at cities across the

country from Alaska to California and in

countries such as Germany and Iceland.

Girls learn an instrument, form a band, write an original song and perform a concert

at a live music venue (Girls Rock Camp Alliance, 2015).

IM40 is a youth health program

sponsored by AstraZeneca and piloted by

the United Way. Through the program,

youth develop assets that will empower

them to graduate, to pursue careers, and to

make healthy choices. Some of the

developmental assets are youth as resources, service to others, school boundaries, positive peer influence, creative activities, interpersonal competence, planning and decision making, and self esteem. IM40 provides support to programs within the state of

Delaware that offer one or more of these

assets to youth between the ages of 11-18.

(IM40, 2014).

5. Delaware Department of Education should take a

leadership role in ensuring all

school districts have dropout

prevention programs in place.

The Delaware Department of

Education has taken a leadership position

when it comes to the quality of education

children receive in the State of Delaware.

Recently, 6 schools were designated

Priority Schools due to their struggling test scores. These schools were required to

enter into a partnership with the DOE, and

were given additional funding to support

measures designed to boost test scores. The

30

DOE should likewise take similarly

aggressive actions in order to stem the tide

of student dropouts and stop outs.

Specific money should be set aside

for dropout prevention program

development. Publicity campaigns should

be run at each school to make the student

body aware of the services. Having

programs and services available is of no use

if students are not aware of the services

and/or do not utilize them. Schools should

be awarded for innovative outreach

programs. Special programs that target

African American (44% of the students who

dropout) and Hispanic students (12% of the

total students who drop out) should be

encouraged.

The National Dropout Prevention

Center recommends a 15 point intervention

for successful dropout prevention. This

intervention includes systemic renewal of

school goals and policies, school-

community collaboration, a safe learning

environment maintained by a comprehensive

violence prevention plan including conflict

resolution and crisis management. Also

included in the intervention are family

engagement, early childhood education and

early literacy development. Academic

support may be provided through mentoring,

service learning, alternative schooling and

afterschool opportunities. Teachers should

be provided with professional development,

active learning and educational technology.

Students should receive individualized

instruction and career and technology

education (National Dropout Prevention

Center, 2015).

new castle county education project

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