Work is being done to reduce dropout rate, re-enroll students
JOHNSTON COUNTY – The number of public school students in Johnston County who dropped out during the 2022-2023 calendar year now stands at a five year high. But work is being done to reduce that number.
According to a Johnston County Public Schools report, 296 students quit school last year, up from 265 in 2021-2022, and the highest in the five year report.
Some individual schools saw numbers decrease while others jumped. For example, Clayton High saw their dropout number more than double from 20 in 2021-2022 to 42 in the 2022-2023 school calendar.
At the same time, West Johnston’s dropout numbers fell substantially from 16 two years ago to five last year.
Officials said most dropouts occur in the ninth and tenth grade levels. A review of the data suggests most students leave public school due to attendance issues and lack of engagement.
Counselors and social workers have been teaming up to help students stay in school, including enhanced academic efforts and an evening academy.
The report highlighted 17 students dropped out last year then re-enrolled for the Summer Learning Program. Of that number, six went on to graduate and 13 additional dropouts re-enrolled in the fall of 2023.
A total of 30 students who had previously quit school in the county have now returned to JCPS and many are on track to graduate in June 2024.
During the 2022-2023 school year, Johnston County’s percentage of dropouts was 2.28 percent, compared to the statewide average of 1.95 percent. Johnston’s dropout numbers have been lower than the statewide average 3 out of the past 5 years, the report noted.
And we give Bracey a raise…..,,,,
What’s interesting is the highest number is in the “ virtual academy @. Probably because they are virtually learning… not real learning. What a scam. A Bracey project
I love how they point out Clayton’s numbers doubling but not princetons almost tripling or SSS with the highest numbers. Biased much?
This is wholly inaccurate and misleading. 5 year high? Where? Outside of virtual academy, no one’s numbers are worse than 2020-21 (pandemic year), percentage-wise. I’d love to know what is happening with Virtual Academy. Are we supposed to be looking at the percentage or the number? In both cases, the headline here is misleading.
Also interesting the Covid years were down…..who needs to quit when the school system did it for you.
Bryant is the principal there. She was in charge of Riverwood Middle for 2 years and over SIXTY teachers and staff left during her tenure.
@Admin-It was higher than that. Add at least twenty more.
Well let’s see there’s so much bs going on in schools, teen pregnancy, drug use, bullying, lack of parental involvement, financial issues I could go on and on. I’m surprised the numbers aren’t higher.
And why aren’t patents placed with 99% responsibility??
How, for a second, can you put blame on the ‘system ‘ when
the patents apparently don’t give a crap?
What would your parents likely have done..if you had dropped out?
Or judging from some comments here, maybe YOU did drop out??
We keep blaming everyone, schools, teachers, books, elected nuts. When the real problem is and starts with the parents. The parents are the root of the education issues. Parents don’t want to do the job of parenting they want to pawn it off onto someone else, then blame someone else for not doing their job of parenting.
The Virtual academy is the single cause for the spike/rise in drop outs. A project captained and hailed by Bracey. It is ridiculous that he was given a raise for “accomplishments”. But I guess that’s what you get when you hire for optics and not abilities.
Numbers are not surprising. It became very apparent that kids don’t show up or do way less work when taught virtually. Experienced it myself during the pandemic. It takes both a motivated student AND parent for it to work. I am not for pushing kids through just for saying they graduated when they still can’t read past a 3rd grade level. That’s what we have been doing for years, so it doesn’t bother me that the dropout numbers are higher! They should probably be even higher if weren’t still pushing kids through!
If students at risk of dropping out already are then enrolled in Virtual Academy to hopefully prevent the dropping out, then it makes sense for VA to have a high drop out rate. Please keep that in mind. Also, a school’s drop out rate is very directly related to the principal’s interpretation, or lack of, of state and district Credit Recovery policies. These numbers most likely indicate those that did not communicate with the school. If they will communicate with the school, the school will find a way for them to graduate without having to do much work at all. Credit Recovery is a somewhat evil topic that most administrators do not want to be questioned about. How many high school students passed classes only bc of CR? How many depended on CR to pass 5? 10? 15 classes? You will be surprised.
You’re delusional.