Report: 1 in 4 don't get diploma on time

[hippiechick]

I think this not only ties in with the story about needing mandatory kindergarten, but is also a D'oh! moment for the people of this state who can't imagine how far behind the rest of the country our population is going to end up.


1 in 4 don't get diploma on time
Grad numbers fall 14 percentage points under more realistic Indiana formula

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061128/LOCAL/611280401

Researchers urged state leaders to press for solutions Monday in response to Indiana's first realistic graduation rate, which showed one in four students in the Class of 2006 failed to get a diploma on time. The state's top education official unveiled a 75.5 percent graduation rate Monday to the politicians, educators and business officials who make up the Indiana Education Roundtable. The number was a significant drop from inflated figure from previous years, which hovered near 90 percent.

Statewide, about 12 percent of the 77,558 students in last spring's graduating class dropped out of high school, according to the figures. Others who didn't graduate on time still were taking classes or finished high school through an alternative program such as the general educational development test, or GED.

The problem is most severe for about 22 Indiana high schools in eight districts, where 60 percent or fewer students graduate on time, according to researchers who presented the adjusted graduation rates Monday. Those researchers, from a national academic standards watchdog called Achieve Inc., said about a third of the state's minority students are enrolled in poor-performing schools they referred to as "dropout factories."


Oh, and WTF is THIS little gem? :shrug:

Federal law gives states the flexibility to calculate their own graduation rates, so methods and definitions of graduates vary.



... more at link ...