According to the Tennessee state report card for the 2014-15 school year, Elizabethton city schools had a 91 percent graduation rate, 3.2 percent higher than the state average, and Carter County Schools had an 84.2 percent rate, 3.6 percent lower than the state average.
“Graduation rates fluctuate naturally, and anytime we are over a 90 percent graduation rate, we are doing stellar,” said Director of City Schools Dr. Corey Gardenhour. “We are trying to focus on our standards and doing what our students need to be college and career ready. It all starts with expectations, and we start working on that from Kindergarten onward.”
A number of factors contribute to graduation rates.
“The leading cause for dropouts is a lack of necessary guidance,” said Director of Carter County Schools Dr. Kevin Ward. “When you have strong influence and a strong home life and expectations, then you typically have a good response. Schools and parents have to have a good connection and high expectations.”
Without that guidance and positive communication, he said that schools see an increase in truancy.
“If truancy goes unnoticed, it evolves into dropout, so we are frequently on the phone or making home visits in those cases,” he said.
In city schools, Gardenhour said they have a response intervention system for students.
“We have very few children that fall into lowest academic category because struggling kids get assistance,” he said.
They also employ two graduation coaches that work with students and help develop and maintain their four-year plan.
“That has been a major part of our success over a long period of time,” he said.
In county schools, Ward said teachers and principals have established a much more rigorous teaching method and expectations. He said they have implemented a number of programs in the last couple years to improve in topic specific areas like reading and on broader scales to improve consistency.
The high schools in county and city offer technical skills courses to help students develop interests and to increase involvement. Ward believes it is yet another step to combat truancy.
“When students are not in school, they get into trouble,” said Gardenhour. “They do not have positive direction, and one of the big life skills they learn from school is attendance: learning to show up to work everyday.”
Danny McClain, secondary supervisor for Carter County Schools said that another issue is documentation. He believes their rates dropped by 4.4 percent because students move out of the school system, and their receiving district does not file proper paperwork.
“Those students are counted as dropouts, and without a doubt that has been an issue,” he said. “I think that’s the primary cause, but we’ve put some things in place this year to ensure that it is no longer an issue.”
He said that with a new procedure, receiving schools must file the proper documentation request before transcripts are sent.
Despite declines in graduation rates, student performance is increasingly positive.
County schools have shown significant academic growth in the Tennessee Value-added Assestment System and scored all fives.
A three on the TVAAS scale means the school achieved expected growth, and four or five signifies more, while one or two is less.
“We are super proud of our growth,” said McClain. “There are a lot of positive things going on.”
Elizabethton Schools scored a five overall, three in literacy, four in numeracy and four in literacy and numeracy, and Gardenhour said they have maintained growth as well as demonstrating improvements.
Students dropout is the result of a number of influences and impulses. Though a number of identifiable factors exist, the culmination of them all into a sense of apathy and a lack of motivation or support can be the grain that tips the scales toward dropping out.
According to research published in a 2013 article by Sage Publications, there are three main ways that students dropout: they are pushed out (48.7 percent) , pulled out (36.9 percent) or fall out (14.3 percent.) Push out happens when adverse situations in the school environment lead to consequences resulting in dropout. Pull out refers to instances when a student, because of factors within the student, is diverted from completing school. Falling out of school, a term coined by researchers David Watt and Hetty Roessingh in 1996, refers to situations in which a “student does not show significant academic progress in schoolwork and becomes apathetic or even disillusioned with school completion. It is not necessarily an active decision, but rather a “side-effect of insufficient personal and educational support.”
A dropout indicator study published in 2009 by Ben Dalton, Elizabeth Glennie and Steven J. Ingels found that push out reasons may include truancy, opting out of school for GED, disagreeing with teachers, lack of sense of belonging, suspension, feeling of social isolation or academic incapability. Causes of pull out include needing to support a family, married or became pregnant or became employed and could not work simultaneously.
Gardenhour and Ward agree that the communication between parents and schools, maintaining expectations and getting students to school everyday are the solution to improved graduation rates.