Good News on Dropouts

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Byline: The Register-Guard

More of Oregon's high school students stayed in school last year than the year before - and the year before that, and the year before that. For the fourth straight year the percentage of dropouts fell. In 2001-02, the statewide rate was 4.9 percent, down from 5.3 percent the previous year.

That's the good news from the Oregon Department of Education. But though the decline is encouraging, a 4.9 percent dropout rate translates into 8,160 Oregon teenagers who, for any number of reasons, left school before graduating.

Locally, last year's dropout rates ranged from zero in the Triangle Lake district to a high of 7.6 percent in the …