Employing a new system for tracking high school dropouts, California discovered a rate significantly higher than the one previously calculated by educators, using another technique. The state issued the results on Wednesday, estimating that 1 in 4 California students gave up school last year.

Beyond the proved 24 percent dropout rate, the data released by state schools chief Jack O’Connell also shows that African American and Latino students quit school in a bigger proportion than other ethnic groups. Furthermore, the new results surpass by far the 13 percent estimated using a less complicated technique.

The state Education Department says it can now determine dropouts far more precisely making use of its new “Statewide Student Identifier System” in which every student is given an exclusive, anonymous ID number. With the help of the new method, schools can follow the trace of missing students for the first time, and find out whether students sign up to another in California, even if it is in a different district or city.

The system, which will cost $33 million over the next three years, other than the millions invested for the initial development, guarantees to eventually offer a considerably better manner to figure out where students go and their reasons for doing so. However, state and school district officials admitted that the data released on Wednesday, after a one-day postponement, had a reduced effectiveness

The statistics received yesterday draw attention to an issue that is deteriorating in California, according to Russell Rumberger, a professor of education at UC Santa Barbara who directs the California Dropout Research Project. Moreover, even using the previous system of measurement, he said, the number of dropouts has increased with 83% over five years, while the number of high school graduates has boosted with only 9%.