Single Standard Applied to Graduation Rates

By Greg Toppo

Public schools must begin tracking millions of high school students and ensure that growing numbers graduate within four years.

Under new regulations announced Tuesday by Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, states and school districts for the first time must adhere to a single method of calculating graduation rates.

In a move long sought by education reformers and some governors, the regulations call on states to calculate a “uniform, accurate high school dropout rate” each year. The rate will need to drop steadily if schools are to avoid federal sanctions.

Beginning in the 2010-2011 school year, schools must use a “cohort” graduation rate, which tracks the number of graduates each year and compares that figure to the number of students who entered high school four years earlier, allowing for minor adjustments.

Mike Petrilli of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a Washington think tank, says the move will push states to lower graduation requirements in a bid to raise graduation rates. “If states aim high or moderately high, that’s going to label a lot of high schools as failing.”

But Daria Hall, a K-12 policy director for the Education Trust, a Washington advocacy group that pushed for the new rule, says it is “a step in the right direction,” one that will finally give the public an accurate picture of student dropouts.

“They’ve been dropping out,” she says. “It’s just now … we’re going to have accurate information and know the full extent of the problem.” (c) Copyright 2008 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.