Posted by Steve Raybould - April Mentor on April 08, 2008 at 09:59:39:
In Reply to: Retention posted by Michael L. Janowitz on April 07, 2008 at 10:08:21:
We start band in 6th grade. I get about 35% of the incoming students into my program. The other 65% are split between chorus and exploratory. That gives me about 100 students each year that start. We consistently have 85-90% of the students move into 7th grade. Of those, about 90% move into 8th grade. Until recently, we had a very large attrition between 8th and 9th, but we put into place several things over the past few years and we actually now pick up students into the high school program.
Hope these numbers help your cause.
: I know there was an earlier thread on this, but there wasn't enough there to help me.
: I am trying to determine what an average attrition rate is for Band students. We are currently losing over 50% of the students that start in 5th grade by the time they get to 7th grade. This years 7th grade band is 27 students, but when they were in 5th grade there were 64, for a 58% attrition rate. This years 8th graders are 36, but started with 76 in 5th grade for a 53% attrition rate.
: I know that ES programs have large dropout rates, but ours seem to be very high. We are trying to figure out ways to increase our numbers, but I first want to see if our current data is way out of line or what.
: I know it varies from area to area, but I need to see how similar we are to other schools.
: Thanks in advance for any feedback!
: Mike