Your recent article about dropouts missed the real underlying story about high school dropouts from the March 28 Salisbury Rowan Board of Eduation meeting.
You took the stateís bait making dropouts reflect only those enrolled the 20th day of one school year compared to the previous year. These numbers place our dropout rate at less than 4 percent.
The real dropout rate is the cohort graduation rate, which looks at the enrollment of ninth graders who entered in the class year being considered and how many were graduating. In Rowan County, that number reflected that 27 percent are unaccounted for or dopped out. In urban areas, those numbers are as high as 40 percent in Detroit, parts of Chicago or New York City or LA. The programs being proposed for Rowan County are rehashes of ideas tried before at Henderson Independent High School and prematurely disbanded. As for the proposed restructurings, these are bound to be expensive since there will be redundancy with many schools having night programs. Why not consolidate these offerings in the centrally located Independent High School where they belong and are accessible from all over the county?
One of the most stunning statistics presented was for West Rowan, noting more than 70 students had repeated a grade more than three times. This is discouraging and fosters a mindset adopted by many that says ěI am out of here.î
The issue of dropouts reflects attitude, aptitude and academics.
We have to look at this differently and deal with aggressive, often disruptive, attitudes that many of our dropouts demonstrate, whether through lack of anger control, expression of personality disorders or the need for earlier testing to identify those with mental disorders who need interventions. Anger management classes are a must for many of our dropouts.
Many of our children are drifting and need MMPIs (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory) and other testing to reflect some understanding of their interests so they can be matched to their skill levels. Vocational rehabilitation does a great job with this for its clients.
Some kids just donít have the capacity to complete the tracks established for graduation, and we donít want to talk about it. A general education degree from high school that doesnít require advanced mathematics should be available to those who can read, write, achieve daily living skills and find themselves employable in basic entry level jobs involving such things as manual labor. Such a degree would help many be employable. Many industries will train people to do other things as they see fit.
Since most dropouts occur in the ninth grade, we might consider a ninth grade certificate as well as reinstituting some vocational training in the ninth grade, where it used to be, rather than making it the sole province of community colleges where many of our most needy either wonít attend or wonít make it.

Dr. Ada M. Fisher is an N.C. Republican National Committeewoman and former member of the Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education.