By Matthew E. Milliken
mmilliken@heraldsun.com; 419-6684
DURHAM -- Durham school officials said Thursday that new data on dropouts, discipline and safety show the district to be moving in the right direction.
"The biggest positive clearly is that the programs, the interventions, the support from our parents and our community are all starting to come together to assist students to be successful," said Debbie Pitman, Durham's assistant superintendent for student support services.
Perhaps the most notable numbers released by state education officials Thursday involved dropouts. Durham had 444 dropouts in 2008-09, up five from the year before, which bumped its dropout rate from 4.19 percent to 4.26 percent. That meant for the third year in a row, Durham had a lower rate than the state.
North Carolina as a whole had 19,184 dropouts last year, moving its rate from 4.97 percent to a record low 4.27 percent.
"We've been as a community working out the dropout issues as a comprehensive whole issue that we know the school district cannot solve in isolation, and our Durham community has been on board with that for a number of years," Pitman said.
District officials credited the system's smaller high schools and a state grant with helping to reduce dropouts. A press release noted that social workers use a spreadsheet to track efforts to help students who have dropped out or are on the verge of doing so.
Short-term suspensions fell 4 percent, from 6,809 two years ago to 6,533 last year, and long-term suspensions fell by nearly one-fifth, from 85 to 69. (Suspensions of 10 days or fewer are defined as short-term.)
The local declines were smaller than the state ones. As a whole, North Carolina's short- and long-term suspensions fell 4.7 percent and 31 percent, respectively.
One key to the fall in Durham suspensions was finding ways to discipline youngsters while keeping them in the classroom, Pitman said. "Holding students accountable for their actions, but also keeping them in school for their learning -- and that creates the win-win," the assistant superintendent said.
Most of the local drop in short-term suspensions was due to fewer female students being disciplined. For example, suspensions fell from 1,623 in 2007-08 to 1,504 last year for black females; from 124 to 109 for Hispanic females; from 65 to 38 for multiracial females; and from 134 to 82 for white females.
But short-term suspensions of black males, which account for more than half the total, only dipped from 3,900 to 3,865, a difference of 35 disciplinary actions. Similarly, Hispanic male suspensions fell by just 19, to 460 in 2008-09; multiracial male suspensions rose by 6, to 143; and white male suspensions fell by just 13, to 305.
Black student enrollment in the district amounts to slightly more than half of all students, but black students received more than 80 percent of all short-term suspensions. Statewide, black students account for 31 percent of all enrollment but more than 57 percent of all short-term suspensions.
Incidents of crime and violence reported in the Durham school district dropped from 388 in 2007-08 to 341 in 2008-09, a 12 percent drop. That exceeded the statewide decrease of 3.3 percent.
However, crime and violence reports in local high schools rose from 216 to 241, up nearly 12 percent. Across the state, the corresponding increase was less than 1 percent.
Durham's rate of high school crime and violence, 25.07 acts per 1,000 students, was the state's seventh-highest.
Overall, reports of controlled substances and alcohol were up, but weapons possession and violent crime were down.
Pitman attributed part of the rise in high school crime and violence reports to stepped-up vigilance and stated that the district continues to strive to foster a safe environment. "Our primary, ultimate focus is on insuring the safety of students," she said.
