One in four Hayesville High School students does not graduate on time
Hayesville High School Principal Dr. Gail Criss and Clay County School Superintendent D. Scott Penland were both surprised when the state's historic standard of measure, the dropout rates for North Carolina's high schools, was published and showed a sharp increase in Hayesville's drop-out rate. The drop-out rate looks at a school's entire student body from 9th to 12th grade and how many students they started with on a given year and how many they ended with at the end of that year.
"We have historically been around 1%, but this year our drop-out rate was 4.92%," Penland stated. He explained that with a small school a few more students dropping out one year can severely alter your score. "So you really have to look at several years in a row," he continued to explain. "We would become very concerned if our drop-out rate remained that high for several years. But we hope that we will see it go back down next year."
Penland added that you have to look at these statistics consistently and evaluate the trend over several years. "You have to look at the overall picture," Penland stated. According to Penland, Dr. Criss has looked at the current drop-out numbers and it looks like, so far, the current numbers are better than this same time last year. Penland added that he and Dr. Criss are both hopeful that last year's high number was only a fluke.
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