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 School Committee Meeting: 4/11/13

The next Lynn School Committee meeting is scheduled for Thursday, April 11 at 7:00pm (*the meeting will be preceded by a policy sub-committee meeting at 6:00pm and an open mike session at 6:45pm). SC meetings take place at 90 Commercial Street.

Items on the agenda include: 

-Translation/Interpreter Procedures

-Superintendent's Evaluations - Discussion of Goals

-Vote for last day of school for the 2012 - 2013 school year - June 27, 2013

For the full agenda, see:  http://www.lynnschools.org/documents/district/school_committee/2013_notices/SC%20Agenda%20-%204-11-13%20-%20City%20Clerk.pdf

From the Comment Section: The Daily Item

In the March 18th edition of The Daily Item an article about Lynn's potential for to turn the corner and become a thriving city sparked discussion in the comment section about the actual feasibility of this concept. In response to one commenter who noted that people from outside the city avoid Lynn in part because of its poor schools, user RyansTake left the following remark:

"When you're only asking people from out of town who aren't coming in, you're not asking the people from who *are* coming in... which means you're not getting the feedback on the stuff that actually works or is being done well. I'm interested in Lynn because it's a beautiful community with a lot of value, and has a real up-and-coming sense to it.

For a lot of people who 'aren't interested' in Lynn, it's because of things from the past and misconceptions, a lot of them dramatically divorced from reality. Trying to change their minds may be futile, so focus on the people who are interested... and maybe when so many of the convincible people find the great value of the things to do and places to live in Lynn, they'll convince their skeptical friends of its positives. If not, well... as long as Lynn's doing great, who cares what they think? There are always naysayers.

Speaking of misconceptions.... have you seen the schools in New Bedford, Fall River, Lawrence or even Salem? Lynn has plenty of room to improve with its schools, but any family willing and able to put the time into making sure their kid does their homework will have great success with the Lynn school system. I'm not sure the same can be said of, say, Lawrence or New Bedford.

Instead of drumming to the beat of "Lynn's schools suck," let's actually look at the facts.... It's 4 year graduation rate is 20 points higher than New Bedford's [Editor' Note: Lynn's 4 year graduation rate is 18.7 points higher than New Bedford's] and about 7 points lower than Beverly's [Editor's Note: This statement is accurate].

What's that say? There's room for improvement, but clearly Lynn is doing some things right. The bottom line: Families with parents involved in their child's education are graduating their students in Lynn, and a lot of those students are doing very well. It's the (unfortunately) broken families that Lynn isn't reaching, but no school in America is reaching them in great abundance -- not even charters, which force out underperforming students at unbelievably high rates, and unlike public schools, don't have to count them in their 4-year graduation rate.

Lynn just has a lot more of these families than, say, Lynnfield. Aside from that, Lynn's schools are in some ways doing better than they should, given what the socioeconomic data tells us.So, again, there's value here for many young professionals looking for a place to live, even if they have or are thinking of having kids who will need to go to schools."

Are people too quick to point to Lynn's so-called "poor schools" as the reason it remains undesirable to many outside the city? Are some of the perceptions surrounding LPS unwarranted?

Lynn's Lower Grades Still Seeing Increasing Enrollment Numbers

Last year, we looked at enrollment figures at the lower grades levels (Pre-K through Grade 3) for the 2011-12 school year which indicated that the lower grade levels in Lynn were seeing considerable increases in enrollment numbers for these grades. Here is data from the current school year.

	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13
PK	242	245	233	266	270  (+4)
K	1036	1120	1102	1235	1295  (+60)
1	1109	1156	1217	1228	1364  (+136)
2	1051	1075	1123	1182	1195  (+13)
3	1068	1017	1051	1063	1161  (+98)

Enrollment data for the 2012-13 school year still shows that Lynn is seeing increasing numbers in the lower grades. The first grade saw the biggest increase from the previous year with 136 more students in 2012-13 than in 2011-12. Other school districts similar to Lynn are also seeing substantial increases in enrollment at the lower grade levels. Fall River, for example, saw a 15% increase in the number of kindergarten students from 2011-12 to 2012-13.

Lynn's kindergarten enrollment has increased 25% since the 08-09 school year. 

Kindergarten enrollment figures, however, vary at the individual school level with Cobbet enrolling the most kindergarten students (113) and Fallon the least (2).

Last year we also looked at how the enrollment totals for Lynn's most populated schools changed considerably from school year 10-11 to school year 11-12. The opening of the Washington STEM School this year was initiated, in part, to hopefully curb some of the overcrowding at three of these schools (Connery, Harrington, and Cobbet).

	2011-12	2012-13
Cobbet	682	607 (-75)
Connery	606	592 (-14)
Ford	605	617 (+12)
Harrington	639	595 (-44)
Ingalls	639	655 (+16)
Breed	1257	1200 (-57)

Here we see that those three schools targeted in terms of overcrowding reduction have decreased enrollment figures from the previous year. Cobbet saw the largest drop in student enrollment with 75 less students from 2011-12. More significantly, the number of schools with kindergarten enrollments over 100 has decreased from 5 in 2011-12 (Cobbet, Connery, Ford Harrington, and Ingalls) to 3 in 2012-13 (Cobbet, Connery and Ford). Harrington, for example, has 41 fewer kindergarten students than the previous year bringing its enrollment at this grade level down from 139 to 98. Ford was the only one of the elementary schools listed here which saw an increase in the number of kindergarten students (+5). Additionally, though not specifically targeted in terms of enrollment reduction, Breed Middle School also saw a drop in student enrollment. On the other hand, both Ingalls, which interestingly saw a 24% decrease in kindergarten enrollment, and Ford continued to see their overall enrollment numbers increase.

Overall, the Lynn Public School District currently has an enrollment of 14,139 students, an increase of 408 students from the previous.

*All Data Taken from: www.doe.mass.edu

Lynn's 3rd Grade Reading Proficiency Rate in Context: Urban Districts & the North Shore

Here we looked at Lynn's 3rd grade reading proficiency rates both over and at the individual school level on the 2012 exam. Now let's look at a comparison of 3rd grade reading proficiency rates in the ten urban Commissioner's Districts.

Below is table reporting the reading proficiency rates for the urban districts on the 2012 exam.

Springfield had the highest proficiency rate among this group (50%) while Holyoke had the lowest (20%).

Because student populations change each school year in terms of both demographics and class size, it is important to look at these numbers over time as well. Below is a table which looks at 3rd grade reading proficiency rates for these same districts from 2010 through 2012.

  

Over the past 3 years, Holyoke has consistently had the lowest 3rd grade reading proficiency rates with a range of 20 - 25%. Only two of the ten districts had reading proficiency rates of at least 50% over the past few years: New Bedford in 2010 and Springfield in 2012.

The other comparison that some consider when gauging a particular district's academic performance is among other communities in the district's general area. Below is a comparison of Lynn's 3rd grade reading proficiency rate on the 2012 exam compared to surrounding towns and cities.

 

Lynn and Salem have the two lowest proficiency rates among these school districts while Lynnfield and Marblehead have the highest. Interestingly, some individual Lynn schools had proficiency rates that were on par with surrounding communities. Aborn, for example, had a reading proficiency rate similar to the Danvers Public School District while Sisson's was comparable to Swampscott's overall proficiency rate at this level.

*All Data Taken from: www.doe.mass.edu


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•  Lynn 3rd Grade Reading Proficiency Rates