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State Ranks Near Bottom Nationally: 39TH: Commissioner Thinks Students Need Education to Be Relevant to Lives.

Posted on: Wednesday, 21 June 2006, 12:00 CDT

By Liz Ruskin, Anchorage Daily News, Alaska

Jun. 21--WASHINGTON -- Alaska's high school graduation rate was 64 percent in 2003, below the national average -- 70 percent -- and a bit worse than the state's own statistics suggest, according to a new nationwide study published in Education Week.

Eleven states had lower graduation rates than Alaska's, most of them in the Deep South.

The study's authors say national education policy has focused on testing students and grading school performance but hasn't concentrated on seeing that more students get high school diplomas.

"While raising standards remains a good goal, one might argue it's time to devote equal attention to the problems of those who don't make it," said Lynn Olson, project editor of "Diplomas Count," funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Alaska calculated its own graduation rate at 67 percent for the 2002-03 school year, but the state Department of Education isn't quibbling over the exact figure.

"It's dismal. It's bad," said state Education Commissioner Roger Sampson, in an interview this spring.

This year, Alaska's graduation rate slipped to 61 percent. And that's by the state's calculation method, which would tend to make the picture look rosier than the method the report's researchers used.

The problem is partially with the schools, for not making education relevant to students' lives, Sampson said.

"I think that further and further, we have disconnected the relationship with school and life outside of school," Sampson said. "I think there's a disconnect with that. We have not done the job we need to do to make that a meaningful way for kids to spend time."

Making education relevant is especially tough in remote Alaska communities with few jobs, he said.

"There's very little hope for those kids in those small areas so what are they going to do with school when they're done?" he said.

A map accompanying the Education Week report shows especially low graduation rates -- below 50 percent -- in the state's North, Southeast and Southwest, which are off the road system.

Parents, Sampson said, can help by emphasizing the value of education.

"That means that they become interested and tell their kids that school is important and that they expect those kids do well, and they just don't roll over when it doesn't go well for the kids," he said.

No Child Left Behind, the 2001 federal law that requires standardized tests for students and establishes qualifications for teachers, allows each state to set its own graduation rate goals.

"There's a great temptation to set goals so that the schools and districts can meet them," Olson said.

Alaska set its rate at 56 percent, well below the national average and its current graduation rate.

Eric Fry, Sampson's spokesman, said the graduation rate goal doesn't mean that state isn't aiming to have more students graduate.

"It means that for high schools to make adequate yearly progress, they all have to have at least that graduation rate," he said.

Alaska has huge racial and gender disparities in its graduation rates. The state's pattern mirrors the nation as a whole: girls graduate more often than boys, Asian-Americans more than whites, and whites more than other racial groups.

One area where Alaska differed is where in high school students drop out. Most states lose the greatest share of their students in ninth grade. For Alaska, it was 12th grade.

Fry said he didn't know the reason for that.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Anchorage Daily News, Alaska

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: Anchorage Daily News

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