Knock, knock: It's Houston's new truancy gambit

The dropout rate has become the center of the case, which began a few weeks ago in Austin. Indeed, according to the RAND Corporation, only 17 percent of job applicants in Texas have the necessary education skills for today's labor market - an alarming figure considering that 85 percent of jobs require skilled or professional education.

And the trial falls in a state where education issues tend to be especially charged: Secretary of Education Rod Paige was once superintendent of the HISD, and President Bush has touted the state's education reforms as a success story and a national model - yet with such a high dropout rate, those claims have grown increasingly controversial.

In addition to putting kids on the streets without an education, high dropout rates result in unrealistic test scores. "It's a double whammy," says Wood. "It doesn't educate students and it leaves schools with a false sense of security, that they are doing better than they are."

So far, much of the trial testimony has revolved around what the state's real dropout numbers are. An expert for the prosecution said nearly one-third of high school students drop out before graduation, while the state claims there is only a 5 percent dropout rate (though even education officials admit that number is not believable).

But everyone agrees that calculating the numbers is difficult.

The HISD, for instance, was put on probation last year for severely underreporting high school dropouts. The district placed part of the blame on the state's complicated system for tracking dropouts. It spent the past year recalculating its numbers and just this month had its "acceptable" rating restored.

The new numbers show that Houston's overall graduation rate last year was 72 percent, but a recently released Johns Hopkins University report, "Locating the Dropout Crisis," shows that the district, with a total of 32 high schools, has 20 with "weak promoting power" - meaning they lose up to 60 percent of their ninth graders by the senior year. That was one of the lowest scores in the study.

At a recent training session, Garcia was one of dozens who learned about combating figures like those. He was taught how to listen, respond to problems with solutions, and be a "goodwill ambassador" for the schools.

After an evening of role playing, he headed out armed with anticipation and a sense of what one person can do.

"I was headed in the wrong direction," says Garcia of his own school days. "All my friends were dropping out of school, and I was on my way. But I had a really good mentor who was able to get me back on the right track as far as my education was concerned. If I can help one student like that, it will be worth it."

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