States brace for grad rate dips as formula changes

[xchrom]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CHANGING_GRADUATION_RATES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-07-27-14-15-16

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- States are bracing for plummeting high school graduation rates as districts nationwide dump flawed measurement formulas that often undercounted dropouts and produced inflated results.

Education wonks long have suspected the statistics used by some people to determine how their neighborhood high school is faring - or even where to buy a house - can be figured using various formulas that produce wildly different results.

Now, many states are facing a sobering reset: Some could see numbers fall by as many as 20 percentage points.

Liz Utrup, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Education Department, said graduation rate numbers will soon appear to decrease "across the board" as states move to a uniform calculation that requires them to track each student individually, giving a more accurate count of how many actually finish high school.

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[xchrom]

2. ...

:rofl: um...no.

[RC]

3. Wadwe miss?

[xchrom]

4. the claim was our educators are doing a bad job. nt