• Home
  • News
    • Politics & Government
    • Business & Economy
    • Crime / Courts
    • Health / Medicine
  • Sports
    • High School Sports
    • Radio Iowa Poll
  • Affiliates
    • Affiliate Support Page
  • Contact Us
    • Reporters

Radio Iowa

Iowa's Radio News Network

You are here: Home / Education / Dropout rates up but state says they’re still low

Dropout rates up but state says they’re still low

March 27, 2009 By admin

The Iowa Department of Education released the new report on the state high school dropout rate Thursday that shows some 4,400 students in the ninth through 12th grades dropped out last year. That’s a rate of 2.85%, which state education officials say is one of the lower rates in the nation.

The Burlington school district had the highest dropout rate of 8.85%, followed by Marshalltown at 8.53% and the Council Bluffs schools at just over 8%. The Webster City School district was seventh in the state report with 31 dropouts and a dropout rate of just over 5%. In the 2006-2007 school year there were 21 students who dropped out of Webster City High School.

Webster City superintendent Mike Sherwood says they have been working to turn the situation around. Sherwood says they had done some work in the last month to identify the dropout population and says they’ve been working to set up a meeting with the dropouts to "gauge what the issues are, how can we better serve and meet their needs, and what kinds of changes do we need to make as a district to reengage them back in school."

Sherwood says they will do whatever they can to improve the dropout rate. Sherwood says the staff has been involved and are concerned as well. He says they will review their policies and practices and try to identify the issues and address them aggressively. The state is now using a new system that assigns a number to each student to hopefully give them a more accurate assessment of what’s happening with students.

The other Iowa school districts in the top ten with dropout rates included Des Moines, Waterloo, Fort Madison, Davenport, Cedar Rapids and Muscatine. The complete report can be viewed on-line at the Iowa Department of Education website, or through the link on RadioIowa.com.

(Pat Powers of  KQWC in Webster City contributed to this story)

View a spreadsheet of dropout rates here.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Filed Under: Education

Featured Stories

Governor signs Iowa Renewable Fuels Standard into law

Jury returns guilty verdict in shooting death of State Trooper

Summit has easements for 20% of carbon pipeline route through Iowa

Morel mushroom hunters on hold without warmer conditions

Trinity Health aquiring all MercyOne health properties

TwitterFacebook
Tweets by RadioIowa

Iowa Special Olympics Summer games set to open in Ames

Radio Iowa/Baseball Coaches Association High School Poll 5/16/22

Iowa assistant coach Kirk Speraw to retire

Northern Iowa prepares for Missouri Valley Conference softball tournament

T.J. Otzelberger announces staff changes at Iowa State

More Sports

eNews and Updates

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Archives

Copyright © 2022 ยท Learfield News & Ag, LLC