SOUTH BEND — Dropout rates at South Bend high schools continue to soar high above state averages. Now, administrators say they may have a new way to help bring the numbers down.

School board members talked about the problem at a special meeting Wednesday night.

Graduation rates actually went up and dropout rates went down during the 2006-2007 school year, and administrators are now working to understand why. Board members heard some theories from a national expert during a phone conference call earlier this week.

At one point, administrators estimated South Bend's graduation rate district wide at barely 50 percent. In the 2006-2007 school year, Indiana's Department of Education listed it at 62.5 percent. That's a 2.5 percent increase from the previous year.

Still, the numbers remain far below the state average of 76.5 percent, and board members are continuing to push for improvement.

Administrators analyzed two schools where graduation rates went up: Clay and Washington high schools. They had graduation rates just below 76 percent.

They found teachers and administrators there have been picking up more early warning signs of what they call "fade outs." Experts say those are teens who haven't dropped out yet, but are becoming apathetic. They've also begun to identify what experts call "push outs" — teens who feel abandoned by the education system.

By identifying those students, and understanding why they feel the way they do about school, administrators found they could intervene and convince those teens to give school another try.

Some say trying that approach even earlier may bring even more dramatic results.

"The 17-year-old with two high school credits is just an almost impossible job to deal with," said South Bend Superintendent Dr. Robert Zimmerman. "So we've got to be very diligent in approaching the problem much, much earlier."

"We're talking about not just high school, but starting in the primary centers and trying to address these problems before they get to be dropouts," said School Board President Sheila Burgeron. "So, I'm anxious to see what they bring back to us."

In the meantime, school board members are asking for more input from parents, community groups, and students themselves to help develop a final "early warning prevention system" plan. They hope to hold a panel discussion on it later this year.