SOUTH BEND — South Bend high schools are seeing higher graduation rates. But the dropout rate is still twice as high as the state average.

School officials and students don't agree on the reason.

Twenty percent of South Bend high school students will drop out. But experts say early detection can prevent that.

Experts say most students who drop out begin performing poorly in third grade. That's the age when the South Bend School Corporation noticed those students' grades dropping below the average on the ISTEP. And school officials says those grades remain low for their time in school.

Graduation is a few months away, and Isabelle De La Rosa is focused on her future.

"I want to have a good job after my senior year. I want to have something more," said the Washington High School senior who wants to continue her education at Ivy Tech.

She isn't the only Washington High School student looking ahead.

"I've got dreams. I've got goals I want to achieve for myself," said Quintien Walker, a Washington High School sophomore, who wants to work in the music industry.

But the South Bend School Corporation says hundreds more -- 356 to be exact -- don't have dreams and are dropping out of school.

"Many of our kids who are not successful don't have that vision. They don't look down the road. They look at the immediacy at what they are getting now," said South Bend School Corporation Superintendent Robert Zimmerman.

According to information from the 2006-2007 school year, the school corporation says six out of ten students will graduate on time. The other four will remain in school or go to an alternative school, like Bendix, to continue classes, get a GED, or get a special education certification. But out of those four students, two will drop out.

"Kids are dropping out of school every day because they don't care," said LuEllen Newhouse, a Washington High School freshman.

Most students say they know several people who dropped out and at least one is a friend or family member.

"Some teachers aren't that good, and they make school boring," said De La Rosa.

"It's either the teachers nagging us or they aren't trying to help us out," said Newhouse.

But Zimmerman believes new programs, like a Career Academy, are the answer.

"That is so much of what we need to get our young people focused on -- that they are capable of anything," he said.

The Career Academy program is in place for freshmen now. It will expand to include other high school grade levels in the fall of 2009.

But one board member says we can't wait.

"What are we doing for 11th and 12th graders to take us off probation? Do we have to wait another two years?" asked school board member Bill Sniadecki.

Other ideas suggested at Monday night's school board work session on the dropout problem included reducing class size, paying teachers more, and getting parents more involved.

The school board wants to hear from teachers and find out what role poverty plays in the dropout rate before moving ahead.