Star-Tribune Editorial Board

It's too early to call it a trend, but the Natrona County School District is making some headway in its effort to reduce its dropout rate and boost its graduation rate.

In a district where more than a quarter of the students who start ninth grade have been failing to graduate, that's excellent news. But there's still much room for improvement, and further progress will require more effort by the schools, families and the community.

NCSD attendance officer Gary Somerville reported to the school board last week that based on attendance reports comparing the 2006-07 and 2007-08 school years, the estimated graduation rate increased from 74 percent to 79 percent. And the dropout rate decreased from 29 percent to 16 percent.

How has it happened?

One factor may be a new attendance policy adopted in 2007 that established uniform methods of handling truant students and administrative regulations for attendance at both elementary and secondary schools.

Another may be a focus by individual schools on the problem. Kelly Walsh High School, for example, has cut its dropout rate by an estimated 23 percent by communicating better with parents and placing students in appropriate classes.

Also helping the district's efforts has been the hiring of dozens of tutors to work directly with students and full- and part-time teacher coaches to improve instruction.

A big challenge to further progress is the state's worker shortage, which allows young people to obtain relatively high-paying jobs without high school diplomas. In spite of pleas from state Superintentent of Public Instruction Jim McBride and others, some employers continue to hire high school dropouts.

"We've created a culture in Casper that school isn't important," Somerville told the Natrona County board.

That has to change.

Students need to be made aware of the personal losses and risks they face if they do not graduate from high school. But a high dropout rate also poses problems for the state's current and future economy. For example, the Alliance for Excellent Education estimated that dropouts from the class of 2006 cost the state more than $544 million in lost wages, taxes, and productivity over their lifetimes.

Improvements in the local dropout and graduation rates are worth celebrating. But we can't afford to be satisfied yet.