In a study released by the Intercultural Development Research Association, Texas high schools are shown to have a downward trend in attrition rates, but still are losing one out of every four students.

The attrition rate is the number of students who enter high school together who are not present when that class graduates.

In the past four years, the state attrition rate has dropped from 33 percent to 27 percent, yet some counties, including Smith which sits at 29 percent, are still above the average.

Bullard Independent School District Superintendent Keith Bryant said the attrition rate can be a misleading statistic.

“Although the attrition rate is an indicator, it doesn’t tell the whole story,” he said. “Some kids move out of state, change to home schooling or change counties and those are kids still get included in the number of students lost.”

Smith County lost 33 percent of its African American students, 20 percent of its Caucasian students and a staggering 43 percent of its Hispanic students for the 2010-11 class totaling 855 students lost.

Bryant said the reason the percentages of African American and Hispanic students lost is so high might be due to their smaller numbers as compared to Caucasian students in Smith County

“We have smaller numbers in both of those subgroups, so a little fluctuation might cause a big percentage,” he said. “A better measure is the completion rate. For instance, if a student leaves Bullard to go to Jacksonville, that doesn’t count against us.”

Bryant said he didn’t know the exact number of students lost for BISD for that graduating class, but because Tyler is included in Smith County, he assumed most of the students lost came from there.

“We need to look for programs to keep them in school,” he said. “We need to try to provide programs for kids who might not be college bound. For example, if a student is interested in welding, we need to have a program for that. We really need to focus on those kids who might not be going to college, because if a student is college bound, they’re probably finishing high school.”

“Breakdown of the family is the main reason kids don’t finish high school. It has to be a cooperative effort between the school providing quality programs and parents requiring the kids to stay in school.”