Student dropouts are a community problem, not just a school problem, a superintendent says.

"It's something that's not going to be solved overnight," said Wayne Trottier Jr., the superintendent of Four Winds Community High School in Fort Totten.

An analysis of federal data by Johns Hopkins for the Associated Press shows about 1,700 regular or vocational high schools nationwide - or 12 percent of all such schools - fit the description of a "dropout factory." It refers to a high school where no more than 60 percent of the students who start as freshmen make it to their senior year. North Dakota ranks 34th among the states.

Four Winds is among four North Dakota reservation area schools that fit the profile. The Johns Hopkins research shows its class of 2006 totaled 60 as freshmen but just 19 as seniors.

"We've improved academically, but attendance is still a challenge for us," Trottier said.

The school, with about 650 students in kindergarten through 12th grade, has an attendance specialist, and is analyzing data to look for trends, he said.

The other North Dakota schools listed with low graduation rates are Dunseith High School, New Town High School and Turtle Mountain Community High School. Their superintendents could not be reached Monday for comment. But they are not the only ones in the state struggling with dropout problems.

"Dropouts were a problem for us a couple of years ago," Devils Lake Superintendent Steve Swiontek said. "Our graduation rate was about 85 percent.

"So we put together a dropout prevention team. We carried that into the middle school and the elementaries," he said.

Some dropouts are just bored in high school, Swiontek said. Some children fall through the cracks and are hard to track.

Congress is considering legislation that would set goals for graduation rates and develop tracking systems.

"Those dropout rates really hurt you," said Laurie Matzke, the director of Title I, a federally funded program to help students needing extra instruction.

Officials of larger schools, not just reservation schools, would like more money to track students, she said.

Swiontek thinks the GED exam is a good solution for some students. There are questions about who is considered a dropout and at what grade, he said.

"We still have some work to do, no question. But we measure upper middle class, we measure middle class and high poverty with the same measuring stick. All it's telling us is the less economic value a community has, it indicates failure," Trottier said.

"I don't think it's all the schools' fault," Swiontek said. "Society and the child himself have to take some of the burden."