Dropout rate at Merrimack High fell by more than half in 2009, figures show

Thursday, February 4, 2010

CONCORD – The school dropout rate dropped by more than half last year at high schools in Merrimack and Litchfield while it inched back up at schools in Amherst and Wilton, according to figures released last Tuesday.

The dropout rate at Nashua’s two high schools dropped only slightly last year.

Deputy Education Commissioner Paul Leather said this was because dropout prevention programs already in place at both schools caused numbers to decline significantly in recent years.

“Nashua put folks in each high school and middle school to track the truants, follow the kids, and it had a dramatic effect on the dropout rate,” Leather said. “Manchester schools have picked up on that strategy, and it’s helped them cut theirs by more than half last year.”

Gov. John Lynch credited the work of state and local educators for cutting dropouts across the state by 30 percent.

All told, 1,127, or 6.7 percent, dropped out from a statewide enrollment in high school of 65,057.

A year earlier, there were 1,652, or 9.7 percent, who had dropped out from a slightly larger high school enrollment of 66,456.

“That’s an outstanding statistic,” Lynch said with educators and legislators from both parties at his side to share the good news. “We are making significant progress on this very important issue.”

Lynch predicted the numbers would go still lower with the new law that, since July 1, requires students to stay in school until they turn 18.

And he maintained the slumping economy had little to do with the improvement.

Rather, Lynch said the declines are because school administrators and policy makers have flexibility to devise their own programs to keep teens working on getting a diploma.

Dr. Mark Joyce, with the New Hampshire School Boards Association, agreed with Lynch’s assessment.

“It used to be a high school had to look a certain way and have the same programs at the same hours and the like,” Joyce said.

“The real story out there is that the schools locally have been able to expand their continuum of services.”

Kevin Landrigan can be reached at 321-7040 or klandrigan@nashuatelegraph.com.