Journal editors stuck still, on graduation rates

From the editors of the Albuquerque Journal this morning, link;

NM Grad Growth No. 1

The state’s high school graduation rate increased faster than any other state from 2007 through 2012. That’s excellent news for the state, its students and its schools. 

No, it isn't.  It may be"excellent" news for someone trying to hoodwink the people into believing that public school education is 20% more effective than it was a few years ago.  Other than that, it is news coverage of a "statistical" outlier, wikilink; a measure that doesn't correlate with other measures.

Graduation rates are up a full order of magnitude over every other measure of public school success.  The supposed growth in graduation rates is fully ten times as great as any other measure of how well public schools prepare students for life after school.

Graduation rates can be raised significantly by simply allowing more time to graduate.  Or, by rewriting the rubric to dis-include students less likely to graduate.

How else can you explain such phenomenal growth in graduation rates and a tenth as much growth in every other measure?

The story here should be;
why are graduation rates so high while every other measure of public school success remains essentially static?

In particular, that question needs to be asked because huge amounts of public power and resources are being spent based on efforts to effect the 
why isn't education getting cheaper and more effective

There are a number of ways to measure the success of public education.  For the most, the measures align; if one goes up a little they all go up a little.  It stands to reason; if public school education is getting better or worse, one would expect legitimate measures to move together.

So why the focus on the least consequential statistic; the outlier?

Politicians and senior public servants would like to focus on
graduation rates because graduation rates (can be made to) look good,
and by extension, they (can be made to) look good as well.

Why the Journal editors are so fixed on the least consequential measure of public school success is for them to explain.

I would argue there is circumstantial evidence enough to draw a conclusion about their apparent fixation with graduation rates, and about their part in the cover of the standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.

The Journal editors and their counterparts in the broadcast media are protecting personal and political relationships with politicians and senior public servants; school board members and senior APS administrators.

Else, the editors simply are bone numbingly ignorant of which they write, and yet write nonetheless.

I wonder if even one of them has signed up to substitute teach in a regular or special ed classroom for even one day, ever.

There are a number of situations in life where, if you weren't there,
and in particular, if you intend never to be there, even for one day,
you're better off keeping your opinion about what other people
ought to be doing in such situations, to yourself.