The nation has far fewer so-called “dropout factory” high schools these days, down sharply from 2008 as more students leave high school with a diploma, according to a report from the Alliance for Excellent Education, America’s Promise Alliance, Civic Enterprises, and the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University.
The number of dropout factories—where less than 60 percent of students who started as freshmen remain enrolled four years later—fell from 1,812 in 2008 to 1,040 last year.
Officials said some of the dropout-factory schools got better by providing teacher coaching, giving teachers more time to collaborate, and offering more support for students. Others were closed and replaced with better alternatives or parents transferred their children to other schools.
