With the number of high school dropouts increasing each year nationwide, Iowa appears to be one of the few states keeping students in school.

With a dropout rate of 26.6 percent, Mississippi plans to spend $125 million as part of a five-year plan to revamp its entire school system and better aid students who are at risk of dropping out.

School districts in North Carolina and Texas are using similar measures to improve their dropout rates as well

However, Iowa seems to be improving its dropout rate without being forced to take such drastic measures.

In the 2001-02 academic year, Iowa had a dropout rate of 2.41 percent for students in grades 9 to 12, ranking fourth nationally, according to the Iowa Department of Education Web site.

By the 2004-05 academic year, that number had decreased to 2.14 percent.

Frank Hernandez, assistant professor of educational leadership and policy studies, said once someone looks beyond the cumulative dropout rate, it becomes apparent that Iowa is actually not doing a very good job of ensuring students graduate, however.

“Only 45 percent of Latinos and 40 percent of our black students graduate, which is lower than the national average of 55 percent and 53 percent,” Hernandez said.

“Iowa is doing a good job of graduating its white students, but doing very poor in graduating its students of color.”

Hernandez said these numbers may be a greater subject of concern than some may think.

“We face an aging and shrinking population. We need every one of our students graduating from high school,” Hernandez said. “High school dropouts have a shorter life span and make only $19,000 a year compared to $28,000 for high school graduates.”

Pamela Pfitzenmaier, administrator of the Division of PK-12 Education for the Iowa Department of Education, said the dropout rate is still a problem in Iowa, which is already attempting to further decrease the dropout rates.

“We do have some areas of the state as well as student populations with higher dropout rates,” Pfitzenmaier said.

“We find that if districts can provide alternative programs and the community works together to focus on dropout prevention, there is impact on those rates.”