SFUSD's missing kids

WHEN THE CLASS of 2003 graduated from San Francisco public high schools last spring, there were roughly 1,000 fewer students than entered ninth grade four years ago. And the situation is getting worse. As Tali Woodward reports on page 13, a San Francisco Unified School District memo shows 895 high schoolers dropped out during the 2002-03 year alone – an increase of 46 percent over the previous year.

Superintendent Arlene Ackerman has made a crusade of her efforts to eliminate the achievement gap between students of different races, and by many accounts she's making progress. But the dropout figures are a cause for alarm – particularly since the district doesn't seem to have a solid handle on the numbers. Woodward found that there are at least two sets of internal district figures that don't match, and neither figures match the numbers the district sent to the state Department of Education.

It's true that dropout numbers are tricky: students leave town, or switch to private or parochial schools, and don't always tell the SFUSD where they've gone. Once California begins tracking public school kids through a statewide computer system, it will be easier to get a handle on those changes. But there's plenty of evidence that dropout rates are a serious – and increasing – problem in San Francisco. The San Francisco Board of Education members should ask Ackerman for a coherent plan to address the problem – starting with a way to gather and present reliable data.

P.S. It took us several weeks to get even basic public information from the SFUSD – yet another reason the board needs to immediately agree to abide by the city's Sunshine Ordinance.