California drop-out rates studies

This report compares high school dropout rates between districts as well as between traditional and non-traditional schools. Includes a link to data on numbers of schools, enrollment, numbers of dropouts, and dropout rates, by county, district, and type of school.
Rotermund, Susan.(2008). Which California School Districts Have the Most Dropouts? Santa Barbara: California Dropout Research Project.
http://www.lmri.ucsb.edu/dropouts/pubs_statbriefs.htm


Shares what first-year high school students find motivating or discouraging; how they view family, peer, and school factors; and how demographic characteristics, attitudes toward school, and support networks affect the odds of their dropping out.
Bridges, Margaret; Stefan Brauckmann; Bruce Fuller; Oscar Medina; Laurie Mireles; Angeline Spain. (2008). Giving a Student Voice to California's Dropout Crisis.
Santa Barbara: California Dropout Research Project.
http://www.lmri.ucsb.edu/dropouts/pubs_reports.htm


The extent of California’s dropout problem is unknown, placed at between 33 and 16 percent. California needs to build a robust student data system—-called a student unit record (SUR) system, because it contains information on every student from entry in kindergarten to exit from college and eventually into the labor force-—in order to accurately measure the dropout rate across schools and colleges, hold educational institutions accountable, evaluate the effectiveness of programs, help identify students at-risk, and assess return on educational investments. The state can do so by building on its existing student data systems enhanced by adding and standardizing data elements (e.g. program participation and attendance), integrating the existing SUR from the four California education segments, linking the integrated SUR data file with other state and federal data files, and broadening access to the resulting data set.
Vernez, g. (2008). Improving California's Student Data Systems to Address the Dropout Crisis. Santa Barbara: California Dropout Research Project.
http://www.lmri.ucsb.edu/dropouts/pubs_reports.htm


This report analyzes the different, nested, and interdependent roles of these education support providers. The report particularly examines the role of school districts. The author argues that, while well functioning school districts are uniquely positioned and integral to building school capacity, they also generally need substantial capacity-building themselves to identify and coordinate the array of resources that must be brought to bear in order to address pressing educational challenges. The report concludes by suggesting that the most potentially powerful and systemic approach to coordinating the different organizations supporting educational improvement would establish a state-wide consortium of support providers.
Supovitz, J. (2008). Building System Capacity for Improving High School Graduation Rates in California. Santa Barbara: California Dropout Research Project.
http://www.lmri.ucsb.edu/dropouts/pubs_reports.htm