States Are Underreporting High School Dropout Rates

By Tessa Corie SmithNNPA Special Contributor WASHINGTON (NNPA) – Many states fail to report high school graduation rates to the U.S. Department of Education or submit figures that are so flawed or inaccurate that they threaten to undermine public confidence in the education, according to a new report issued by the Education Trust, an organization dedicated to fostering high academic achievement. “We’ve got to end this rampant dishonesty about graduation rates, Kati Haycok, director of the Education Trust, said in a statement. “If we are going to prepare students for the challenges of college work, and life, we need to transform our high schools.” Under the No Child Left Behind Act, states must now show that they are making progress in educating students and improving their graduation rate. The report, titled “Getting Honest About Grad Rates: How States Play the Numbers and Students Lose,” revealed that three states -Alabama, Louisiana and Massachusetts did not report any graduation rates. Seven others – Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Vermont – did not submit numbers that showed the disparity in graduation rates between Blacks and Whites, as required by the law. And many of those that did report employed questionable techniques to disguise their failures, the report notes. For example, New Mexico claimed to have a high school graduation rate of nearly 90 percent. However, it staked that claim by reporting on the number of high school seniors graduating, not those who enrolled as freshmen four years earlier. North Carolina, according to the report, lists a 97 percent graduation rate. State officials report the number of students who receive their diplomas in four years or less. Under this plan, dropouts are not counted, enabling the school to paint a rosy picture. “It is astonishing that states are trying to pass off these numbers as legitimate,” Daria Hall, author of the report and a policy analyst for the Education Trust, said in a statement accompanying the report. “Graduation rates are a fundamental measure of whether high schools are doing a good job. But rather than confront our very real dropout problem, many states have chosen to bury it beneath false data.” Still, other reports underscore the seriousness of drop-out problem among Blacks. According to the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan economic and social policy research firm, a projected 1,252,396 students who entered the 9th grade in 2000-01 did not graduate within four years. More than 50 percent of these non-graduates (667,438) were African-American, Latino, or Native American. ”We know that urban schools with students of color and low-income students are not giving students the support they need,” says Hall. The study cites reports that show about one-third of students in high school quit before graduating, a decision that will have a major impact on their lives. “No one can dispute the singular importance of high school graduation,” the report states. “The high school diploma represents the minimum requirement for successful participation in the workforce, the economy, and society as a whole. The unemployment rate for high school dropouts is more than 30 percent higher than that of graduates. And when employed, dropouts earn close to 30 percent less. Dropouts are also more likely to end up incarcerated and rely on public assistance.” Even so, some states are not aggressively attacking the problem. States have the power to set graduation rate goals. Some have established low goals and view minimal improvement as a sign of progress. Education Trust data shows that Connecticut, Virginia, Texas, and Tennessee, are among those states that have said that any improvement is enough to meet the requirement of the NCLB Act, while no progress is required in New Mexico or South Carolina. ”We are very concerned that the graduation data doesn’t accurately reflect what’s truly happening in the states,” says Susan Aspey, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Education. “The Secretary has been highlighting the magnitude of high dropout rates as she presses the case for high school reform. Since you can’t fix problems if you don’t know about them, it’s absolutely vital that states get the necessary systems in place so parents and the public know the true extent of the dropout problem.” There are some signs of progress. ”Florida schools are doing a good job,” says Hall. “Each student has a unique id and [the state] can track them though out the school system.” She adds, ”Washington state, just over a year ago, was reporting inflated graduation rates. Now the rates are lower but much more honest. This opens up discussions among leaders, which can lead to improvements.”