Tennessee Up, Georgia Down: National Report Ranks Progress on Raising High School Graduation Rates

By Beverly Carroll, Chattanooga Times/Free Press, Tenn.

Jun. 5–Tennessee is one of the two most improved states while Georgia is among six states with the least improvement in the nation for high school graduation rates, according to a national report released Wednesday.

But the Diploma Counts 2008 report says both states lag behind the nation.

The report showed 65.4 percent of Tennessee students and 58 percent of Georgia students graduated on time from high school in the study year, 2005. Across the nation, 70.6 percent of students earned a diploma for the same year.

Overall, the nation made “slow but steady” progress in graduation rates, rising 2.6 percentage points from 2001 to 2005, Christopher B. Swanson, director of Editorial Projects in Education, said Wednesday. The nonprofit organization worked with Education Week on the report.

“But we see that some states are further ahead of the curve than others,” he said. “Both Tennessee and Florida showed the most improvement, more than seven percentage points.” Georgia rose only two and a half points, the report showed.

But projections for 2008 rates show that graduation rates still are a critical problem, Dr. Swanson said.

“We project that 1.23 million students in 2008 will not graduate this year with a diploma,” he said. “That’s about one student lost out of the education pipeline every 13 seconds. That is a crisis of significant proportions.”

Educators also said that 2005 data do not reflect a number of programs implemented in recent years aimed at improving graduation rates.

Catoosa County school board member David Moeller said the Georgia district has implemented a number of programs in recent years that he predicts will help that district improve the 52.5 percent rate reported by Diploma Counts.

“At least we are not hiding and we are working hard on the problem,” Mr. Moeller said.

DIFFERENT METHODS

The report’s authors used statistics from the Common Core of Data, compiled by the U.S. Department of Education, because it is the most complete information available for comparison, Dr. Swanson said. They calculated rates by a different method than the states use, he said.

Education spokespeople from Tennessee and Georgia said the different methods caused wide point spreads.

Georgia’s own figures showed a 69.4 percent rate and Tennessee’s showed a 77.9 percent rate for the same year, state records show.

“Here is the bottom line: There are a lot of ways to calculate graduation rates,” Dana Tofig, Georgia Department of Education spokesman, said. “The good news in all this is Education Week shows our rate is improving, and we show that our rate is improving.”

Both states use a “leaver” rate to calculate graduation percentages, while Education Week used a “cohort” method.

The state method compares the number of students who earned regular diplomas to the number who did not for a given year.

The cohort method measures how many students earned diplomas among the total number of freshmen who started high school four years earlier. Cohorts do not count students who earn diplomas in more than four years or other types of certification such as GEDs.

Tennessee education spokeswoman Amanda Maynard said it is gratifying to have the state’s efforts recognized.

“It shows we are making progress and working toward our goal,” Ms. Maynard said. “That’s the good news, and we are spreading it right now.”

Individual trend data show that many local districts reflect similar increases in graduation rates. But overall rates remain low, and are lower than state targets set to meet the No Child Left Behind benchmarks, the report showed.

Rhea County Schools Superintendent Dallas Smith said he was happy to have one of the highest graduation rates out of 11 Southeast Tennessee districts.

“I don’t know what formula they are using because in 2005 we were 82 percent, compared to 70.1 percent (the Diploma Counts report) shows for us,” Mr. Smith said. “But I’m tickled pink to be among the highest in the bunch.”

Rhea County Schools implemented a freshman academy to increase the pass rate from ninth to 10th grade. Research shows that many students who drop out do so after failing freshman classes and getting behind from the beginning.

“Our rising seniors will be the first class to graduate from our academy,” Mr. Smith said. “We are eager to see what the data show next year.”

Sequatchie County’s school system also has a ninth-grade program with similar goals and programs, Assistant Superintendent Pete Swafford said.

Yet the district has one of the lowest graduation rates among Southeast Tennessee districts, graduating 55.6 percent in 2005.

“A lot of effort has been put into making freshmen feel like they can be successful,” Mr. Swafford said. “It’s something working with some students, but will it work with all students?”

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