- The Fresno Bee
Monday, Dec. 05, 2011 | 01:07 PM
Fresno Unified Superintendent Michael Hanson says it's no secret the district's dropout rate is unacceptable.
"I'm very public about it," he said. "We don't shy away from the challenges we're facing. If we lose even one kid, that's too many for the community."
But Hanson bristles at critics who say the district is ignoring the problem.
The superintendent, fresh from last month's contract extension and a positive evaluation by five of the seven district trustees, said the graduation rate continues to improve at Fresno Unified schools.
Hanson added the district is fighting the dropout problem on multiple fronts, including educating parents about the value of graduating from high school, studying the causes of truancy and investing in vocational education.
"We have a problem but the district is on the right trajectory," he said. "It's hard work."
Hanson and the district have been under fire in recent weeks for high truancy and low graduation rates.
Last month, a series of articles in The Bee highlighted the district's truancy and dropout problems. One of the articles told the story of 17-year-old Junior Villarreal, a habitual truant and borderline dropout who was killed in a fight during school hours last spring.
Junior was just one of 5,765 Fresno Unified high school students who qualified as habitual truants in one semester last year, according to district attendance documents obtained for the series.
Hanson didn't respond to interview requests for the series, which was written and researched by California State University, Fresno, graduate student Tracey Scharmann for an in-depth reporting class. The class is taught by journalist and author Mark Arax, who has publicly criticized Hanson in the past.
But in response to the series, the superintendent wrote an opinion piece that was published in The Bee on Friday, and also sat down for an interview about the district's dropout and truancy prevention programs for this story.
The series discussed the difficulty in pinpointing dropout or graduation rates and the different ways they can be calculated and reported. For example, according to the state education department's database, the 2010 graduation rate for Fresno Unified could range from 66% to 72.5%.
The Bee series also used a more basic calculation, comparing the number of graduating seniors in 2010 to ninth-graders four years earlier. Using that method, which doesn't account for students who transfer in or out, the number of students who graduated in 2010 was 53% of the number of freshmen in 2006.
Hanson flatly refutes the 53% graduation rate, calling it "completely inaccurate."
Instead, he points to California Department of Education data, which counts the number of official dropouts in grades 9-12 as reported by the district. Those figures show the district graduation rate rose from 69.1% in 2007-08 to 72.5% in 2009-10. Graduation rates for 2010-11 haven't been released yet by the state.
"It's an oversimplification to say that we're not doing anything about dropouts," Hanson said. "Our graduation rate is steadily improving."
In fact, Hanson said, the district is doing more than ever to address the causes of truancy and dropouts. In October, the district started a six-month study with the help of a $30,000 grant from the Fresno Regional Foundation that will look into the causes of chronic absenteeism.
Dan DeSantis, the foundation's CEO, said if the study is successful, Fresno Unified may get a share of $600,000 for early literacy and attendance programs.
"We're thinking we're on the verge of something great here," he said.
The district's efforts have drawn fire from critics, including Javier Guzman, executive director of the Chicano Youth Center. Guzman said the superintendent blocked his plan two years ago to form a citywide dropout commission.
But Hanson says he didn't cooperate with Guzman because the community leader came to the district demanding $200,000 to address the Hispanic dropout rate.
"He just wanted us to give him $200,000 with no plan," Hanson said. "If you ever find me, as a superintendent, giving $200,000 to an organization with no plan and no track record, you have every right to criticize me."
Guzman said he never asked the district for any money. "I'm prepared to take a lie detector test to prove I never asked for any money," he said. "They're only saying that because they can't bring themselves to address this crisis."
Hanson also defended the district's practices in dealing with chronic absenteeism. He pointed to the district's Department of Prevention and Intervention, which he said handled crises, conflict resolution and chronic truancy problems for 11,000 students last year.
According to Fresno Unified policy, students who miss more than 10 days of school are referred to the department. Parents are invited by letter to meet with district social workers and discuss attendance problems.
If the attendance problems aren't resolved, the district either calls another meeting with the parent or conducts a home visit.
If the absences continue, the student is referred to the district's Student Attendance Review Board, consisting of a panel of social workers and district officials. If the absences continue, the family may be sent to court and fined.
However, records show that Junior, the teen profiled in the Bee series, was not sent to SARB despite persistent absences over his high school career. Nor was his younger brother, also a chronic truant, sent to SARB until last month, after Scharmann made repeated inquiries about his status.
Last year the district reported that 2,700 of Fresno Unified's 74,000 students had more than 10 absences, according to district spokeswoman Susan Bedi. Four-hundred fifty were sent through the SARB system because they continued to miss school. Fifty-two families were sent to court because of their child's continued absences and 218 citations were issued, Bedi said.
This number of reported truants is far lower than what is shown in district attendance records from its high schools, as published in The Bee's series, which reported that the district fails to capture the true extent of the truancy problem.
"The truancy rates from districts are inaccurate numbers," David Kopperud, the Department of Education chairman for SARB, said in the series. "They mask what's really going on at grade level with chronic absences."
Although the SARB system is used statewide, Hanson said he questions whether SARB, which can -- but rarely does -- end in fines for parents, is an effective consequence.
Instead, Hanson said, he is focusing on educating parents through the district's Parent University, which he said will expand from 2,600 to 10,000 families next year.
Parent University teaches classes about helping students succeed in school and provides training in using ATLAS, the district's online information system that provides information about student grades and attendance.
"Frankly, there's no teeth in the SARB process -- unless we want to prosecute parents," Hanson said. "I don't think prosecuting parents is the answer, I think educating parents is the answer."
To help keep kids in school, Hanson said, the district is trying to beef up vocational education -- also known as career technical education. He disputes criticism that the district is not investing enough in vocational education.
A 2004-05 Fresno County grand jury report found most schools in the district and Fresno County do not offer vocational courses such as woodshop, auto shop, metal shop, drafting, nursing and health care as part of their regular educational program.
Since then, Hanson said, the district has worked to bring new classes to schools. Today students can choose from 25 "career-themed pathways," he said. But it's more than just adding classes to the roster, Hanson said. It's also important for all of the district's high school students to have proficiency in basic English and math.
"We need to prepare students for using algebra concepts at the construction site," he said. "It raises the expectations for all kids to a new level, including those who are in vocational education."
Hanson said the district has been working for two years to increase standards in vocational classes, which would allow the class credit to be acceptable for graduation and also college admission. He said just 4% of the district's classes met the standard two years ago; 43% meet that standard today.
The district also started offering a vocational education class in business at Cambridge High School, the district's main continuation school, this fall. It is the first class of its kind at Cambridge. Hanson said the district will continue to develop more vocational classes: "I think we always have room to improve."
