Despite facing difficult odds, the Somerville public schools have seen a decrease for the second consecutive year in the number of students dropping out of high school.
For the 2005-2006 school year, the dropout rate was 2.3 percent, compared to 4.3 percent the year before, according to the Massachusetts Department of Education (MDOE).
This decrease came in the face of obstacles. Sixty-seven percent of Somerville High School students are designated as being in the "low-income" category by the state and 52 percent of students are taking English as their second language, according to 2006-2007 numbers from the MDOE's Web site.
These numbers compare to state levels of approximately 29 percent and 15 percent, respectively.
Additionally, Somerville schools experience a large degree of flux, meaning that many students are not in Somerville for all four years.
There are "a plethora of reasons" that students drop out, Somerville Public Schools Superintendent Tony Pierantozzi said.
He attributes the success to the combined efforts of the district's staff and students.
"It's a team effort," he told the Daily. "We have a lot of staff members working very, very hard, and obviously our students are to be congratulated for facing the difficult academic requirements we have in our state."
These requirements include passing the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) tests. Ninety-nine percent of graduating seniors in the district pass, according to a press release issued by the district.
Still, Somerville does have some catching up to do. The district as a whole exceeds the average four-year graduation rate for urban districts in the state by 15 percent, but is still about three percent behind the state average. Somerville High School, however, exceeds both the district and state rate according to the MDOE's Web site. The state graduation level for the 2005-2006 year was 80 percent.
Pierantozzi is particularly impressed with the numbers as compared to other urban schools. "With an urban school like we have, I think it magnifies the excellence of the job that we have done as a school district," he said.
To increase the graduation rate and to ease the transition into high school, Somerville High School has implemented various programs, many of which account for the decrease in the dropout rate.
One example is the House Program, which separates each class into four houses, each headed by an assistant principle, a guidance counselor and a secretary.
This system provides a single point of contact for the questions and concerns of both parents and students, Pierantozzi said.
Other programs focus entirely on incoming freshmen. "What we were trying to do is make sure our ninth-grade teachers are creating a welcoming [environment] where students sense that they belong," he said.
Additional help has come from volunteers. Some of these volunteers work in an after-school program run by the Somerville Boys and Girls Club and routed to Tufts students through the Leonard Carmichael Society.
Senior Isha Plynton, who volunteers every Thursday, said that she feels that her program has been effective, but not to the point where it can account for all of the successes. "I feel like what we're doing is making a difference, but not on that kind of scale," she said.
Much of the help that college students can offer comes from sharing their experiences, or "talking about college life," senior Adjoa Anyane-Yeboa, who is involved in the same program, said.
"I think it's been very helpful, even just in the relationships that [have] been formed," she said.
Pierantozzi said he appreciates this help, noting that Tufts students "are great role models for our high school and middle school students."
Still, according to Plynton, some in the Somerville community feel like Tufts students can do more.
Pierantozzi said that all volunteers are helpful. "We can never say that we have enough volunteers," he said.
Although the numbers for the district have been largely positive, he said that there is always room for improvement. "Obviously, we're not satisfied with any dropouts," he said.
He also wants to go further than that by encouraging more students to attend college.
"We would like about 70 percent of our students to take the PSATs and the SATs and apply [to] and attend college," he said. "More than that, we want to improve the rigor of our academic offering so that students from Somerville who attend college have the basic skills and the interest and the motivation and the aspirations which result in them actually getting the next diploma too."
But Pierantozzi said that a high-school diploma is a crucial starting point for all students. "A high school diploma on average is worth about a half a million dollars in someone's earning career," he said.
