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Wednesday, March 28, 2001
Dropouts test W. Oso, Robstown
Schools have rates among highest in area
By Jeremy Schwartz
Caller-Times
On a recent morning, West Oso's truant officer gathered his weapons of choice - a stack of business cards, various files and a list containing the names and last known addresses of the district's 14 dropouts.
   Henry Castillo, a former police officer, is a bear of a man. At 6-feet-3-inches tall and 429 pounds, not too many people want to test him. "Most people say, 'let's hear what he has to say first,' " said Castillo, who speaks with a gentleness that belies his size.
   Leaving the West Oso High School parking lot, Castillo drove toward the home of a female student who dropped out of school last year as a sophomore. A car is parked in the driveway and the house's windows are open despite a steady drizzle, but no one answers his repeated knocks. As he has done numerous times before, Castillo leaves a letter with his name and phone number.
   This is the front line of the West Oso Independent School District's battle against dropouts. Of the 119 freshmen who entered West Oso High School together in 1995, 36 did not graduate with their class in 1999. Twenty dropped out, giving West Oso a dropout rate of 16.8 percent for the class, the highest in the Coastal Bend. Also among the highest in the Coastal Bend is Robstown Independent School District, where 14 percent of the class of 1999 dropped out between their freshman and senior years. Only West Oso and Sinton, where 16 percent of the class of 1999 dropped out, had a higher rate than Robstown.
   The numbers are almost double the state average of 8.5 percent and significantly higher than the 9.7 percent for Region 2, which covers 46 school districts from Beeville in the north to Sarita in the south and Freer in the west.
   Although Robstown had the third-highest dropout rate in the area, its 79 percent graduation rate is better than rates in Kingsville, Flour Bluff and Corpus Christi. And Robstown earned a recognized rating from the Texas Education Agency in 2000, a rating based in part on dropout statistics. Robstown Superintendent Leobardo Cano said the district's dropout rate likely prevented it from earning a recognized rating in 1999.
   Cano said what is most distressing about the district's dropout rate is the loss in state funding linked to daily attendance, especially because the district's tax base is not increasing. "It's not stopping us from being recognized, but it's stopping us from getting funds," he said.
   While past truant officers in West Oso have focused on attendance issues and truants, Castillo was hired expressly to bring more attention to dropouts, which along with attendance are considered by district officials to be West Oso's top concerns.
   'Positive role models'

George Gongora/Caller-Times

Henry Castillo, truant officer in the West Oso school district, was hired to pay attention to the district's high school dropouts.

   Castillo has made contact with about half of the dropouts and tries to speak with them weekly, a delicate dance designed to lure them back to the world of education.
   "Kids need strong positive role models," Castillo said. "They need someone they can not only look up to, but who will work with them."
   Officials in both the Robstown and West Oso school districts say their respective dropout rates aren't so surprising given the fact that both districts have among the highest percentage of poor students in the Coastal Bend.
   In Robstown, 85 percent of the students are classified as economically disadvantaged; in West Oso, 76 percent are. In Region 2, 56.9 percent of students are economically disadvantaged and statewide, 49 percent are.
   Economically disadvantaged students are kids who qualify for free or reduced school lunch.
   David Lynn, assistant principal at West Oso High School, said the economic numbers mean the district has fewer resources to work with.
   'On the other side'

Paul Iverson/Caller-Times

Robstown High School Principal Roel Lara says many students are forced into the workplace out of economic need. A 1996 Brown University study showed a male dropout averages a $15,000 salary, and a female averages $8,800.

   "Over here, there aren't many people making big incomes," he said. "That makes us unusual. We don't have the infrastructure to support us like other schools do. It seems like everything is being built . . . on the other side of the district line."
   City Councilman John Longoria, who represents the West Oso area, said that if the area doesn't turn its dropout problem around soon, it will dig itself into an even deeper economic hole.
   "You have a generation of kids who are uneducated and an economy that won't tolerate that," he said. "Therein lies the burden on social services."
   Longoria said the West Oso community needs to find a way to help students focus on school, a difficult task in an area so economically strapped.
   "People work hard over here," he said. "In some cases, parents are working two or three jobs and the kids may not be getting the guidance and discipline they need to attend school. Or they may be working themselves."
   Robstown High School Principal Roel Lara said many of his students are forced into the workplace out of economic need and then find the money they earn addictive. "I don't want to say it's a community problem, but once they start making money, it's hard to give it up," he said.
   When they choose between work and school, too often the choice is work, he said. "When you're 16 or 17 you don't see the future," he said.
   Ironically, most dropouts who start working early to escape economic hardships at home find themselves trapped in a lifetime of low-paying jobs, researchers say. According to a 1996 Brown University study, a male dropout averages a $15,000 salary. Female dropouts can expect to make $8,800.
   'Don't see . . . the value'

Click to enlarge

   West Oso High School Principal Max Salinas says some of his district's dropout problem can be attributed to generation issues.
   "Some parents are mechanics, carpenters, or have a trade and didn't graduate themselves," he said. "They don't necessarily see the value of it because they have become semi-successful."
   But as the economy has changed, even entry level and manual labor jobs often require a high school diploma or successful completion of the General Educational Development test.
   Lara said parents in his community play a key role in making sure their children graduate. But parents can also exert too much pressure, he said.
   "It's not going to happen if they don't have the support," he said. "And sometimes a kid can have too much, which is the same as not enough."
   'They have to move around'
   Mauro Garza, the Robstown Independent School District's truant officer, said tough economic times also cause greater mobility among parents, which can destabilize a student's school life and lead to dropping out.
   "A lot of kids and their parents are moving for lack of work," he said. "There's no significant employment here so they have to move around. The employers here are the school district, the city, the utility company, H.E.B. and the taco stands."
   Robstown Mayor Fela Lerma said that students who don't graduate can have a trickle down effect on the city's economy. "If they drop out they're not contributing to the tax base," she said.
   Successful students are usually the ones buying houses and starting businesses, Lerma noted, activities that bring in property and sales tax revenues to city coffers.
   Dropout summit proposed
   Longoria said city officials should consider putting together a dropout summit to help attack the problem citywide before next school year. Such a summit could include stories from successful programs as well as words from former dropouts who have turned their lives around. He said there needs to be more dialogue between city, school and business officials to create a more organized dropout reduction strategy.
   Unlike last year when the district didn't even have a truant officer, West Oso has instituted a concerted strategy this school year to recover dropouts and reduce the district's dropout rate.
   The strategy centers around the efforts of the recently hired Castillo, whose job can resemble that of a private detective, combing through phone books and calling other schools in the area to try to hunt down kids who have gone AWOL.
   "What hurts is when you contact one who says he doesn't care, who has no inclination because they already have a set life - a job or a baby," he said.
   Leaving with a diploma
   Castillo's counterpart Garza, a former investigator with the Hidalgo County Sheriff's Department, also faces obstacles in trying to track down Robstown's missing, even coming across parents who will pretend not to be home when he knocks on the door.
   "They'll peek through the curtains," he said. "It gets frustrating."
   West Oso ISD is setting up a GED program on its campuses, which officials hope students who might otherwise drop out will take advantage of.
   Officials are also implementing a plan to have West Oso Junior High School offer high school level classes for middle schoolers. The hope is that students will come into high school with some credits and qualify for the early graduation program, perhaps giving students who want to leave school early a way to do so with a diploma.
   Anti-dropout programs
   Lara said he thinks Robstown is making progress in addressing the dropout issue.
   Lara said there are several anti-dropout programs in place, including an alternative high school that allows students to work at their own pace and a computer-based program called NovaNet that lets juniors and seniors at Robstown High School work independently.
   Three years ago, the school implemented a novel approach to the traditional homeroom period, in which teachers become pseudo-counselors, helping students with academic, social and home life problems.
   "They sit and eat breakfast, the teachers have folders on all the kids and they adopt the kids for a year," Lara said. "You'd be surprised at how protective the teachers are with the kids."
   Safety net for students
   The hope is for the homeroom teachers to become another safety net for students on the edge.
   The district is also contemplating a hotline number for students thinking about dropping out to let them speak with counselors and other students.
   But despite the various programs, Lara doubts dropout rates will improve in coming years, especially as stricter standards for the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills test are implemented in 2003.
   "You can have all the programs . . . but if the kid doesn't want to do it, forget it," he said. "It has to come from within."


Staff writer Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 886-3779 or by e-mail at schwartzj@caller.com

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