National graduation rates critiqued

A national report calls on states for higher graduation and achievement goals.

By HAROLD GWIN

VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — More than 80 percent of the high school freshmen in Ohio and Pennsylvania in 2002 secured their high school diplomas in 2005.

That puts the two states among the top 15 states, in terms of average freshman graduate rates in the latest year for which statistics are available, according to The Education Trust Inc. This Washington, D.C.-based organization was created to promote high academic achievement for all students at all levels of education.

The results were detailed in “Graduation Matters: Improving Accountability for High School Graduation,” a report issued recently by the trust.

Pennsylvania had a graduation rate of 82.5 percent that year while Ohio’s figure was 80.2 percent. That’s the percentage of graduating students who were high school freshmen in those states four years earlier.

Nebraska scored the highest rate with 87.8 percent while Nevada was the lowest at 55.8 percent.

Critical report

The report was critical of all states, saying they have set “woefully low goals” for improving their graduation rates.

Nor have they done enough to improve academic achievement, the report said, challenging schools to develop graduation and academic targets that provoke action on behalf of students — not ones that condone the status quo.

Neither Ohio nor Pennsylvania have created significant annual improvement targets, according to the report, which showed that Ohio set only a 73.6 percent graduation target rate for the Class of 2006 while Pennsylvania’s goal was 80 percent.

Both states indicated a willingness to accept “any progress” made toward improving graduation rates as acceptable, the report said.

Calling for action

In fact, that was the stated improvement target in 28 of the states, according to the report, which called on Congress to take action to ensure that student graduation rates matter just as much as student achievement when evaluating school performance.

Both are essential indicators of whether high schools are fulfilling their mission, the report said.

Resources should be provided to improve curriculum and assessment in high schools and there should be better direction of funds and interventions aimed at the lowest performing schools and to ensure that high-poverty and high-minority schools get their fair share of the best teachers, the report said.

The United States led the world in high school graduation at a time when attaining a diploma was less critical to social and economic mobility than it is now. The most recent data shows the U.S. now ranks 17th in high school graduation in the developed world, the report said.

gwin@vindy.com