Lynn Attrition Rates 2013-14

The attrition rate refers to the percentage of students who leave a particular school or school district from the end of one school year to the beginning of the next. Last we looked at the 2013-14 attrition rate for the Salem Public School district; now let's look at Lynn. 

In 2013-14, the Lynn public school district's overall attrition rate (excluding charter schools) was 6.3%, up from 5.4% in the previous year. This means that 6.3% of the students enrolled in an LPS school during 2012-13 were not enrolled within the district this school year. At KIPP Academy Lynn, the attrition rate was 4.6%, down from 5.4%.

The attrition rate varied at the grade level with the highest attrition after the 4th and 8th grades in LPS. KIPP had a generally stable attrition rate from the 6th - 9th grade and much lower rates at the 5th and 10th grades.

*KIPP currently only enrolls students in grades 5 - 11.


Over the last few years, the attrition rate in LPS has been much higher in the 4th and 8th grades than the district's average.

The DESE also calculates the attrition rate at the individual school level. This is slightly different in the sense that this just refers to the percentage of students who leave a particular school but not necessarily the district. Some of the students who leave one school may have transferred to another public school within LPS.

At the elementary level, Drewicz had the highest attrition rate (18.2%); Breed had the highest attrition by a slight margin at the middle school level (8.9%) and Fecteau-Leary at the high school level (12%).

A few things about the numbers listed here:

• The attrition rates at the individual school level are higher than the district average indicating that many students may be transferring within the district as opposed to leaving LPS altogether.
• The attrition rate simply notes the percentage of students that left a particular school or district but not the reason why. Some families may a school or the district due to concerns about the quality of education while other may be leaving for job opportunities or more affordable housing, to be closer to family, etc.
• This information does not account for district level decisions to relocate programs such as special education classes.
• One should consider the affect of attrition rates on standardized test scores. At Cobbet, for example, 15.7% of students left the school after 2012-13 yet the population from last school year to the current one was only -2.2% meaning that the school saw an influx of new students at all grade levels even when accounting for the new kindergarten class. The constantly changing student roster has implications as far as a school's ability to show progress with students over time.
• This information is just a snapshot. Enrollment and attrition information is reported as of October 1st and is fluid particularly if one considers that students can transfer in and out of schools any time of the school year.

All data taken from: www.doe.mass.edu 

Lynn Attrition Rates 2012-13

The attrition rate refers to the percentage of students who leave a particular school or school district from the end of one school year to the beginning of the next. Here we look at the attrition rate for public schools in Lynn.

From the end of the 2011-12 school to the beginning of the 2012-13 school year 5.4% of students who were enrolled in a Lynn public school left the district; at KIPP Academy Lynn Charter School, the attrition overall was also 5.4%. Below is a graph indicating the attrition rate by grade level for grades 1 - 11 for both LPS and KIPP (*KIPP currently only enrolls students in grades 5 - 10).

 

The table indicates that for the Lynn public school district, the highest attrition rate is at the 4th grade level after which 12.2% of students leave before entering the 5th grade within the district. At KIPP, the highest attrition rate is after the 8th grade when 10.1% of students leave before entering the 9th grade.

At the individual school level within LPS, attrition rates ranged from 4.1% (Lincoln-Thomson) to 27.5% (Cobbet). Of the elementary schools, Cobbet had the highest attrition rate; Marshall had the highest attrition rate at the middle school level and Lynn English at the high school level.

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education also tracks the attrition rate for schools and districts by individual subgroup. Below are the attrition rates by subgroup for LPS.

For the most part, the attrition rates across subgroups were very similar. The subgroup with the highest overall attrition rate was the African American/Black subgroup at 7.3%. Attrition rates by subgroup ranged from 3.4% to 7.6%.

Attrition rates by both subgroup and grade varied. While African American students had a 7.6% attrition rate overall, at the 4th grade level attrition was 26.4%. For nearly all of the subgroups listed here, there was an uptick in the attrition rate in the 4th grade with double digit attrition rates in 9 of the 11 categories.

Here we look at KIPP's attrition rates by subgroup.

 

KIPP's attrition rates at the subgroup level ranged from 2.6% to 16.7% with White students having the highest attrition of all the subgroups. Males and females had nearly identical attrition rates similar to the Lynn public school district while race/ethnicity subgroups differed considerably. While Hispanic/Latino students had a 0% attrition rate at the 5th grade level, White students had a 20% attrition rate and African American students a 3.7% attrition rate (there was too small of a sample size to collect data for Asian students at this level).

From the 2011-12 to the 2012-13 school year, LPS's enrollment went from 13,731 students to 14,139; KIPP, which is in the process of adding a new grade each year until it reaches grade 12, went from 466 students in grades 5- 9 to 569 students in grades 5 - 10.

Given that there is also an intake rate and that LPS is experiencing issues with overcrowding, do you think attrition is an issue for public schools in Lynn?

All data taken from: www.doe.mass.edu

Lynn Middle Schools Struggle with Math MCAS Scores

Below is an overview of the 2012 math MCAS results for students at the middle school level in the city of Lynn. This year all four middle schools declined to varying degrees in their math proficiency rates with decreases ranging from 2 to17 percentage points.
 

	Adv.	Prof.	NI	W	CPI*	# Included
Breed	8	26	35	32	62.8	1,182
KIPP Lynn	8	31	46	15	71.3	368
Marshall	2	16	37	45	54.7	880
Pickering	12	32	33	22	72.2	622

*CPIs are a measure of the extent to which students are progressing toward 100% proficiency in ELA or math; the goal is a CPI of 100 which is the equivalent of all students having achieved proficiency on the exam. More specifically, each student participating in the MCAS is given a score based on well they perform on the MCAS which is later averaged among the district, school or subgroup to determine the CPI. Possible scores are 0 (Warning/Failing - Low), 25 (Warning/Failing - High), 50 (Needs Improvement - Low), 75 (Needs Improvement - High), and 100 (Proficient or Advanced).

Below this information is further sorted by grade level.

MASSACHUSETTS
 

	Adv.	Prof.	NI	W	CPI
5	25	32	26	17	78.4
6	27	33	24	16	80.5
7	20	31	30	18	75.4
8	22	30	28	19	75.5

LYNN (DISTRICT)

	Adv.	Prof.	NI	W	CPI
5	15	28	33	26	71.8
6	9	30	34	26	70.2
7	5	16	38	40	55.6
8	6	22	30	42	57.4

5th GRADE

	Adv.	Prof.	NI	W	CPI	# Included
KIPP Lynn	4	27	52	17	68.0	100

Statewide, 57% of 5th grade students were 'Proficient' or 'Advanced' math compared to 31% at KIPP. At the subgroup level at KIPP, results were varied with 53% of Non-Low Income students proficient or better compared to 27% of Low Income students. Additionally, females had a slightly higher percentage of 'Advanced' math students that males, though overall the breakdown was comparable. The percentage of students proficient or better decreased 2 percentage points from the previous year.

6th GRADE

	Adv.	Prof.	NI	W	CPI	# Included
Breed	12	37	32	20	74.3	410
KIPP Lynn	5	43	33	49	69.6	98
Marshall	4	23	40	32	65.5	281
Pickering	11	33	36	20	73.3	205

On the 6th grade math exam, 60% of students in Massachusetts were 'Proficient' or 'Advanced' compared to 49% at Breed, 48% at KIPP, 27% at Marshall and 44% at Pickering. Three of the four middle schools exceeded the city average of 39% proficiency. Pickering and KIPP were similar in terms of their CPI at this level while there was nearly a 10-point difference between these schools and the lowest performing middle school (Marshall). The CPI on the 6th grade math exam at the state level was 80.5 in 2012.

7th GRADE

	Adv.	Prof.	NI	W	CPI	# Included
Breed	6	15	40	39	55.9	352
KIPP Lynn	16	32	42	10	77.5	91
Marshall	1	10	39	50	49.1	307
Pickering	10	30	37	23	69.2	214

At the state level, 51% of 7th grade students were 'Proficient' or 'Advanced' in math. None of the middle schools exceeded the state average though KIPP was 3 percentage points away from this figure. The difference in proficiency between Low Income and Non-Low Income students at Breed was 2 percentage points (30% vs. 32%) while the difference at Pickering was 31 percentage points (26% vs. 57%). Here we see also considerable differences between the percentage of 'Advanced' students at each school with Marshall posting the lowest number. Additionally, Marshall saw 50% of its 7th grade students in the 'Warning/Failure' category.

8th GRADE

	Adv.	Prof.	NI	W	CPI	# Included
Breed	5	24	33	39	57.3	420
KIPP Lynn	5	32	49	14	70.3	79
Marshall	2	13	31	53	50.3	292
Pickering	15	34	28	23	74.4	203

Statewide, 52% of 8th grade students were 'Proficient' or 'Advanced;' citywide 28% of 8th grade students (excluding those at KIPP) were 'Proficient' or 'Advanced.' At Marshall, Hispanic/Latino students, which made up 60% of the 8th grade class in 2012, had a 12% proficiency rate with 56% of these students falling into the 'Warning/Failing' category. Pickering missed the state average by 3 percentage points and exceeded the city average by 21 points. The percentage of 'Advanced' math students at KIPP declined 24 percentage point from 2011 while the percentage of 'Advanced' 8th grade students at Pickering and Marshall declined 2 percentage and at Breed by 5 percentage points.


Citation: www.doe.mass.edu


You may also be interested in:

• Lynn MCAS Results 2012: Part III