High school dropout rates hard to verify
Categories: Teens & tweens, Media, Education
Nearly 1 in 3 high school students in the American Class of 2006 will not graduate this year, according to new research released yesterday.But the high school graduation statistic is notoriously difficult to verify: drastically fluctuating graduation rates in different geographic areas cause statistics to skew. Education experts say that none of the current research on graduation rates is entirely accurate.
Jack Jennings, of the Center on Education policy, notes that accurate reporting is needed "before we can fashion some solution."
At the bottom of the article are the graduation rates in 50 of the largest school districts in the United States. Detroit has the lowest graduation rate (21.7%) while Fairfax County has the highest. (82.5%)
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Anna V. 6-21-2006 @ 1:09PM
The article mistakes Baltimore City for Baltimore County (I assure you, there's a big difference on either side of the line) when it quotes the low statistic near the top. In the graphic at the bottom, it distinguishes the county (being in the top 5) from the city (being in the bottom 5).
I'm just nit-picky like that today. : )
Reply
Monica 6-22-2006 @ 8:31AM
Wow, even the best district saddens me. I'm worried about my kids finding something they love to do and can live off of after university. I can't imagine sending them out into the world with a high school diploma, or worse, without one.
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Razib Ahmed 6-22-2006 @ 12:25PM
It is really unbelievable. I live in Bangladesh one of the poorest countries of the world. When we think about the United States we always think of a nation with a highly educated and qualified workforce. This article really disappointed me.
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