Mandan School Board members and administrators will look at a study released this week showing the dropout rate at Mandan High School and develop a plan of action.

Board members are planning a retreat within the next month where they will be given more in-depth information by Mark Andresen, a teacher from Mandan who conducted the study. The study showed a dropout rate of under 3 percent, which is the lowest it has been in more than 10 years.

"I expected to find that our dropout rate was higher than it is," Andresen said. "I was very surprised at the actual student completion rate being as high as it is. Our rate is actually phenomenal."

The board decided to look into dropout trends in the district in September after proposals were brought to the board to implement a truancy reduction program and a dropout prevention program.

"We were sensing we were undertaking solutions when we hadn't studied the problems," said William Schuh, board member. "We wanted to make sure we understood what the causes are so we can better assess what we can do as a school system and what kind of actions will give us the best results."

Andresen's study also looked at the characteristics of dropouts, which the board will be able to use in creating solutions that prevent dropouts.

According to Andresen, the most common characteristics of dropouts from Mandan are a lack of self-confidence in academic success, excessive absences, a lack of parental support or involvement in education and defiance to the discipline and structure of school.

"This thing is not entirely under the control of the school," Schuh said. "One thing that was not surprising was the correlation with parental concern. One of the biggest factors that students planning on leaving high school had was that it wasn't a big thing for the parents. It's kind of hard for a school system to overcome."

Schuh said after the retreat the board will put together a committee of board members, administrators, teachers and counselors to go through the report and define specific problems that can be given a solution. The committee would then take the definitions to teachers for solutions.

Ultimately those solutions would go to the board and a five-year plan of improvements would be constructed.

"The important thing for us is we wanted to really look at things and get a comprehensive view of the school system and its capabilities with this problem," Schuh said. "We want a good problem definition before we propose solutions."

(Reach reporter Sheena Dooley at 250-8225 or sheenadooley@ndonline.com.)