The above graph reports on the 21 non-magnet high schools within DISD who are also over 10 years old. It separate them into three groups: Oak Cliff, Southeast Dallas, and North Dallas. There are 6 high schools in North Dallas, the area north of the Trinity on the west side of Dallas and north of I-30 on the east side of Dallas. There are 6 high schools in southeast Dallas, the area south of I-30 and east of the Trinity River. There are 9 high schools in Oak Cliff, the area south and west of the Trinity River. When you take the enrollment numbers for each of the schools in each of these areas of Dallas and put those enrollment numbers into one spreadsheet for each area of Dallas the results indicate many common Dallas myths that are not true.
A major indication of dropout rate is the percentage of 9th graders who make it to the 12th grade. It is called the promotion rate. Sadly it must be used in this report because the TEA web site does not give graduation numbers by school, only by district and larger geographic area. However enrollment numbers are given, so the promotion rates can be calculated. It is this same promotion rate that was used by John Hopkins University in their 2007 study that designated 1700 "dropout factories" in the US, a list in which all the non-magnet high schools in Dallas were included.
Using enrollment numbers going back for the past 10 years you quickly see that the 6 North Dallas high schools within DISD during that time period had a promotion rate than has dramatically fallen in recent years while Oak Cliff had consitently risen. In the 2008-2009 school year the lead of Oak Cliff over North Dallas has grown to the extent that the 9 Oak Cliff high schools have a promotion rate over 11 percentage points above the 6 North Dallas high schools. See the details that help explain the following spreadsheet at www.studentmotivation.org/dallasisd.
Another Dallas Dropout myth bites the dust!
We have something to celebrate in Oak Cliff! Now to continue the same progress we have had for the past 8 years for the next 8 years!
