Dropout Data Released for Murrieta Valley Unified

The class of 2010 at high schools in the Murrieta Valley Unified School District had an 11.8 percent dropout rate, below the statewide figure of 18.2 percent, according to figures released this week by the California Department of Education.

The district also fell below the Riverside County average, where cumulatively, high schools had a 16.7 percent dropout rate.

The dropout figures are the first from a new system that tracked students beginning when they started ninth grade in the 2006-2007 school year and following them as they left, transferred and sometimes returned.  

The more transitory student population could not be accounted for with the old methodology, according to the Department of Education.

Education officials stressed that because the methodology is different, the data cannot be compared to previous years' dropout numbers.   

In Murrieta, 85.6 percent of the 1,725 ninth-graders in 2006-2007 graduated, compared to 76.3 percent countywide and 74.4 percent statewide.

Forty-two of those Murrieta students were still enrolled when the data was taken, while the remainder acquired a certificate of completion or finished in special education.   

Among ethnic sub-groups, white students in Murrieta had the highest dropout rate, with a graduation rate of 19.6 percent, and a dropout rate of 69.9 percent.

Black students had a graduation rate of 69 percent and dropout rate of 21.9 percent; Asians had a graduation rate of 88.1 percent and  dropout rate of 6 percent; and Hispanics had a graduation rate of 84 percent, while 12.7 percent dropped out.

Compared with other districts in the county, Murrieta Valley Unified had the fourth-highest graduation rate among cohorts, but was not among the five with the lowest dropout rates.

The five districts with the lowest dropout rates were Temecula Valley Unified at 5.3 percent; Corona-Norco Unified at 7.4 percent; Lake Elsinore Unified at 7.9 percent; Palm Springs Unified at 11.3 percent; and Desert Sands Unified at 11.6 percent.

The county’s top two comprehensive high schools in cohort graduation rate were Temecula's Great Oak High School with 97.3 percent and Chaparral High School with 95.5 percent.

Great Oak and Chaparral also had the county's lowest dropout rates among comprehensive high schools, at 1.6 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively.

had a 90.6 percent cohort graduation rate, with a dropout rate of 7.4 percent. had a 93.3 graduation rate, with a 5.6 dropout rate.

Rates from Creekside High School--which weren't available on the reports--as well as Tenaja Canyon Academy and Murrieta Valley Adult Education, also played into the district's total dropout percentage.

Guy Romero, assistant superintendent of educational services for Murrieta Valley Unified, explained that the dropout rate can be affected students who leave the district and can't be accounted for.

School districts must report those students as "lost transfers," which can in turn be counted against them when compiling data.

Romero said the district devotes staff to trying to locate those students. It can be difficult, he said, as could have been the case in 2009-2010 when the area was experiencing a high foreclosure rate and families were leaving.

"The good news is that our (school) registrars are tracking those students closely," Romero said.

City News Service contributed to this report.