WCPSS Dropout Rate Increases Slightly for 2009-10

March 3, 2011 - The dropout rate for grades 9-12 in the Wake County Public School System increased for 2009-10 to 3.53 percent, but the WCPSS rate remains lower than the state’s average and the rates for most urban North Carolina school districts.

The WCPSS dropout rate of 3.53 percent is an increase of 0.06 from the 2008-09 rate of 3.47 percent. The number of students who dropped out of school in 2009-10 was 1,494 compared with 1,430 in 2008-09.

The WCPSS rate remains lower than the state average, and is lower than rates for Durham, Forsyth and Mecklenburg school systems. Guilford’s rate was lower.

North Carolina	Durham	Forsyth	Guilford	Mecklenburg	WCPSS
3.75	4.32	4.07	2.81	4.15	3.53

The WCPSS dropout rate has been lower than the state average in each of the past 12 years.

There was news of improvement for minority students in the report. For only the second time in the past 11 years, the WCPSS dropout rate for Hispanic/Latino students fell below seven percent to 6.86%, marking the fourth consecutive drop for this group. African-American students had their lowest dropout rate since 2003-04 at 5.64 percent. The dropout rate for white students remained below two percent for the second year in a row.

The rates in 2009-10 increased by 1.3 percentage points for limited English proficient students to 10.3 percent, by 1.4 percentage points for students with disabilities to 7.9 percent and by 0.2 percentage points for economically disadvantaged students to 5.3 percent.

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