One out of 10 high-school students in the class of 2009 was a dropout, according to a report recently released by the Virginia Department of Education. That’s 79 students at T.C. Williams High School who stopped attending classes rather than receiving a diploma. That statistic represents a slight improvement over the class of 2008, which had 100 students drop out rather than graduate in four years. Alexandria Superintendent Morton Sherman called the numbers heartbreaking, although he praised teachers and administrators for "moving in the right direction."

"We did, in fact reduce that number," Sherman told School Board members last week. "But still 79 students is a lot of kids to lose over the course of four years."

Students who speak English as a second language and Hispanic students were the most likely to drop out, continuing the trend from last year’s dropout statistics. Performance of Alexandria’s Hispanic population has been a longtime concern for an Arlandria-based advocacy group known as Tenants and Workers United, which accused the administration of fostering a "two-track system" in 2007. Last month, Sherman signed a memorandum of understanding with the group that calls for improved cultural competency, development of individualized plans for students in need and the encouragement of a culture of parent involvement.

"We want to develop a system where there’s a responsible adult to direct students toward college," said John Liss, director of Tenants and Workers United. "What we really need is a staff that looks like the community."

FOR TWO YEARS, the NAACP has been pushing the school system to find a way to diversify its teachers. The advocacy group was relieved earlier this year when Sherman announced that the central administration would be playing a more active role in hiring teachers rather than allowing principals to make all the decisions. Howard Woodson, who is the chairman of the legal redress committee for the Alexandria NAACP, said that he thinks Sherman has already made a number of significant moves to close the achievement gap in the city.

"We now have a superintendent who has nothing to lose," said Woodson. "Our previous superintendent might have been more hesitant to make some of these changes because there were people who were out to get her."

The dropout rate for the class of 2009 at T.C. Williams was 10 percent. That’s slightly improved from the dropout rate for the class of 2008, which was 11 percent. But it’s still higher than the statewide average, which is 8 percent. Students who speak English as a second language had a 28 percent dropout rate, which is higher than the statewide average of 26 percent. And the city’s 22 percent dropout rate for Hispanic students is higher than the statewide average of 19 percent.

Sherman said he’s engaged a number of new initiatives to help reduce the Hispanic dropout rate. He’s about to hire a new curriculum supervisor, and he’s recently hired several new graduation coaches to identify at-risk students and help them succeed in school. Sherman said he’s also working on creating a daytime tutoring center for students, which will be paid for partially with federal stimulus money. In addition to these measures, the superintendent said he plans to continue expanding use of individualized achievement plans to chart a course to success for at-risk students.

"Clearly our next generation of conversation here is not structural, not moving to different kinds of schools but looking deeply at pedagogy and curriculum," said Sherman. "That is our next level of conversation at very deep levels."