Don’t downplay graduation

Argus Leader, Soux Falls, S.D.: One of the most logical ways to get a high school education is to stay in school.

Beginning with the 2009-10 school year, South Dakota made it compulsory to attend school until age 18 instead of the previous requirement of 16. The result was a clear decrease in the dropout rate. That year, the rate for grades 7-12 fell to 1.8 percent, the best in five years.

The state education department seems to be downplaying the importance of graduating from high school with its latest plans to measure school performance. The rate would play a relatively small role in deciding how well a school is performing under the proposed accountability system. Each school’s graduation rate would be 10 percent of its total grade.

Granted, in most South Dakota publi schools, the graduation rate is fairly high, often more than 90 percent. Last year’s overall state rate was 83.39 percent. That’s based on students in grades 9-12. But having the graduation rate amount to 10 percent of the school’s total grade doesn’t seem enough.

The Alliance for Excellent Education of Washington, D.C., said that because 50 percent of the overall grade is given to test scores and the graduation rate doesn’t matter much, schools might not encourage a low-performing student to stay in school because if that student left, it could raise the school’s overall grade. What will prevent schools from pushing low-performing students into alternative programs or out the door? That’s a troublesome idea, and one the state should guard against.