Dropout rate up by 25 percent

Stephen Curran

Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2004 | 11:04 a.m.

Reversing a trend that had been improving, Nevada's high-school dropout rate increased by more than 25 percent in the 2001-02 school year, according to the annual Nevada Kids Count survey, released today.

The increased dropout rate was one of three categories that worsened compared with results of last year's survey, which used 2000-2001 school year numbers and reported a 5 percent statewide dropout rate.

The dropout rate jumped the next year by 1.3 percentage points to a 6.3 percent rate, one of the criteria the nonprofit Annie E. Casey Foundation uses to gauge children's well-being, according to the state Kids Count data book.

"A 1.3 (percentage-point) increase does not seem drastic but it is a reversal of the trend," Rennae Daneshvary, project coordinator for Nevada Kids Count, said.

Kirby Burgess, director of the Clark County Juvenile Justice department, addressing a group of program leaders this morning, said he believes Nevada is "on the right track" toward addressing teen issues but said that more coordination among government entities is necessary.

"No one single entity can do it by itself," Burgess said.

Each year, the data is compiled into national and statewide rankings using a grant from the foundation, with researchers from the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who then break down the national ratings by county, Daneshvary said.

Nevada has consistently fared poorly in education, having the nation's third-highest dropout rate among students ages 16-19, according to the annual national survey.

Rural Storey County was home to the state's highest number of high school dropouts in 2001-02, with 11.6 percent of its students failing to graduate. Douglas County had the fewest number of students dropping out, with all but 0.5 percent of its students finishing high school.

Clark County had a 7.8 percent high school dropout rate, a slight increase over the previous year, according to the data book.

Nevada also had increases in the number of children living in poverty and the teen violent death rate, according to the state survey. The data book compiles nine indicators -- including the number of juveniles arrested for violent crimes, the teen birth rate and infant mortality rates -- to measure the educational, social, economic and physical well-being of the state's children. The jump in the dropout rate may be related to the number of high-paid, low-skill service jobs that require little education in the Las Vegas Valley, Daneshvary said.

Keith Schwer, executive director of Nevada Kids Count and director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at UNLV, said the abundance of such jobs may soften the blow for high school dropouts, but that the long-term effects on the valley economy remain unseen.

"There's still work to be done in interpreting that number," he said. "In our economy, education does not play as significant a role for employment as (other metropolitan areas). People with limited education may be more vulnerable (to change) but even high-tech economies can hit the skids, with the slow-down in Silicon Valley and things like that."

The dropout figures, while still high, had seen an improvement in the past five years, having declined from a high of 15 percent in 1990, according to the national survey.

The overall numbers reflect part of a larger failure by Clark County and state officials in addressing the needs of teens and young adults, Schwer said.

The teen birth rate -- the most noticeable improvement in the survey -- dropped by 5.7 percentage points from 1998-2000 to the most recent period measured in 2000-02, but at 29.9 percent was still higher than the 27 percent national average.

The rate of children living in poverty and the teen violent death rate increased by 0.1 and 0.5 percentage points, respectively.

However, Nevada was below the national average in the percent of children living in poverty, with 13.6 percent, compared with a 16.7 percent national average. The teen violent death rate, at 51.8 percent, was barely higher than the 51 percent national average.

Positive results included slight improvements in the percentage of low-birthweight babies, from 7.5 percent to 7.4 percent; the infant mortality rate, from 0.62 to 0.6 percent; the child death rate, from 23 deaths per 100,000 children to 21 deaths; and the juvenile violent crime arrest rate, from 258.9 arrests per 100,000 juveniles to 242.4 arrests.