Graduation rates; comparatively meaningless

Much hoopla recently, link, about reaching an 80% high school graduation rate nationally.  Locally, more like 70%.

There are a number of ways to measure the effectiveness of public schooling.  Among the least meaningful and therefore least useful, are graduation rates.

There are students "graduating" from high school who can't read.  Colleges and universities are bulging with students in need of remedial classes because high school "graduates" are not adequately prepared for post secondary education.

Any claim that a typical high school "graduate" is prepared for life after high school is patently false.

So why the emphasis on one of the least valid indicators of the effectiveness of public schooling?

The emphasis is placed there because graduation rates are comparatively the most easily manipulated.  School board and senior administrators cannot manipulate ACT and SAT scores, or any other objective measure of learning and performance, but they can manipulate graduation rates.  It is precisely because it is so easily manipulated, that it is a favorite of politicians and public servants. 

In the APS for example, it was decided that graduation rates should be calculated based on five years in school instead of four.  Regardless of the rightness or wrongness of the decision, it is impossible to deny that the decision raised graduation rates without raising performance.

Similarly, APS' decision to drop from graduation rate calculations, students who had failed the 9th grade, link, raised APS' graduation rate again without raising performance.

My own opinion is that there needs to be a cumulative test.  Every student, in order to "graduate" from high school must pass the test (whatever "test" is ultimately determined to mean).

If the testing is well done, students who can pass that test won't need remediation before college.  Students who can pass that test will be ready for apprenticeships and vocational training.  Students who can pass the test, life long independent learners, will be prepared for life.

Graduation rates are a smoke screen.  They are being used to cover up the fact that public schooling is not getting any better.  For all of the advances in learning and education, public schooling is not getting any better.  It should be getter better and cheaper every year.  Any other industry enjoying leaps and bounds in technology gets better and cheaper; why not public education?

The ongoing failure of public education is an executive and administrative failure.  They have the wherewithal to control the language of their evaluations and they choose to use "graduation rates" because graduation rates don't reflect their ongoing failure.




photo Mark Bralley