ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 29, 1996 TAG: 9612300011
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
School dropouts are becoming scarcer by the year in Roanoke County.
The county, which has had one of the lowest dropout rates in Virginia in recent years, has reduced it again - to 1.1 percent during the past school year.
Seventy-one students quit during the year, down from 79 the year before. The county's enrollment in grades seven through 12, which is used to calculate the rate, was 6,397.
The county's dropout rate was 1.2 percent for 1994-95.
Garland Kidd, director of vocational and adult education, said the county's comprehensive approach to dropout prevention is paying off.
Every student who stops coming to school or hints at dropping out is contacted by a teacher, principal or counselor who determines the reason the student might quit and tries to persuade him or her to stay in school.
If that doesn't work, school officials encourage the student to enroll in a General Educational Development program.
"A very low dropout rate means many components are working together for the benefit of the individual student," Kidd said.
Dropouts are defined as students in grades seven through 12 who withdraw from school for reasons other than promotion, transfer, death or graduation and do not enter another school during the school year.
They include students who are enrolled on the last day of school who fail to return to school by Oct. 31 of the following school year.
Roanoke and Salem have not reported their dropout rates for the past year.
Nine years ago, the county's dropout rate was 4.3 percent, which was above the state average. During the 1987-88 school year, 255 students dropped out.
School officials embarked on a program to lower the rate and set a goal of 1.5 percent. The county's rate has gradually declined in recent years.
Kidd said poor academic performance and behavioral problems were the main reasons for dropping out in the past year.
Forty-eight percent of the dropouts cited academics as the reason for quitting; 17 percent, behavior and discipline problems; 11 percent, finances; and the rest were attributed to a variety of reasons.
Fifty-six percent of the dropouts were boys, and 44 percent were girls. Among the county's high schools, Glenvar had the lowest dropout rate, 0.8 percent, and Northside had the highest, 1.2 percent.
The state average was 4 percent during 1994-95, the last school year for which statewide statistics have been released.
For that year, Halifax County had the highest dropout rate, 9 percent, based on figures from the state Department of Education. Norfolk had the second-highest rate, 8 percent, with Alexandria and several counties at 7 percent.
The rates in several cities and counties in Western Virginia were below the state average: Bedford County, 1 percent; Botetourt, 3 percent; Floyd, 2 percent; Giles, 3 percent; Pulaski, 3 percent; Radford, 2 percent; and Salem, 2 percent.
Other rates in the region were: Craig County, 6 percent; Franklin, 5 percent; Montgomery, 4 percent; and Roanoke city, 6 percent.
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