Russell Rumberger, Professor of Education at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and director of the California Dropout Research Project, said that keeping students in school is a priority but it will take cooperation from all levels.

“There’s things that the schools need to do to better engage and educate children, there’s things the districts need to do help the schools do that, and there’s things the state needs to do to help the districts do that. So its really a multifaceted problem that requires a comprehensive multifaceted solution,” said Rumberger.

State Senator Darrell Steinberg said the high number is unacceptable and believes that partnerships with the greater community could help to relieve the crisis.

“We ought to reward businesses that are willing to partner with public educators to establish career focused academies that provide a path to success for too many kids who don’t have a path to success,” said Steinberg.

Steinberg also said that the state’s dropout rate not only hurts young people, but that it also hurts the economy.

The tracking system also revealed high dropout rates for minority students: 41.3 percent of black students, 31.3 percent of Native Americans, 30.3 percent of Hispanics, and 27.9 percent of Pacific Islanders.

White students had a 15.2 percent dropout rate, while Asians had a 10.2 percent rate.

The school districts with the highest dropout rates were Oakland Unified, with 37.4 percent; Fresno Unified with 35.1 percent, and Los Angeles Unified with 33.6 percent.