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Dropout Rate Might Improve If Schools Measured It Precisely

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 28, 2007

Some Florida school officials have taken offense at a new report from Johns Hopkins University which slammed the state for the high number of high schools it calls "dropout factories," schools where no more than 60 percent of those who start as freshmen complete their senior years and graduate.

The Florida school administrators blamed students moving from school to school for the state's dismal showing. Not unexpectedly, they failed to take any responsibility for the dismal state of Florida's high schools. They pointed to the state's own calculation of a high school graduation rate of 71 percent that things are better than they seem.

But Florida has been fooling itself, and it's time for the state to confront the dismal state of its high schools.

New Education Commissioner Eric K. Smith is on his way to Florida, and will start work in less than a week. His first order of business should be to clear away the subterfuge over Florida's high school graduation rates.

It seems like that would be a simple task, particularly in a state recognized for having the best student data system in the nation. But Florida has gone out of its way to avoid confronting its dismal graduation rates, even while national studies repeatedly put Florida's high school performance at or near the bottom of the nation.

The latest jab comes from Johns Hopkins, which used a simple formula. It counted the number of ninth-graders at a school and then four years later counted the number of students who graduated with diplomas.

Florida was second behind only South Carolina in the number of schools considered dropout factories. Fifty-one percent of Florida high schools had that dubious distinction.
Student mobility might be a factor, but it alone could not account for Florida being the second worst in the country. The Johns Hopkins analysis shows Florida's rate of producing dropouts is four times higher than the national average.

Hillsborough County, along with other urban Florida counties, posted particularly troublesome figures. Hillsborough weighed in with 11 schools that made the dropout factory list: Bloomingdale, Chamberlain, East Bay, Hillsborough, Jefferson, King, Leto, Plant, Robinson, Tampa Bay Tech and Wharton.

Florida officials can claim no statistical high ground when it comes to calculating graduation rates. The state's concealing of what most people would consider an accurate graduation rate borders on subterfuge.

Florida counts those who drop out of traditional coursework to get their General Educational Development, more commonly known as GED. That's why national studies of high school graduation rates - which don't count GEDs - typically put Florida's graduation rate about 10 to 13 percentage point lower than what the state reports.

Smith has an opportunity to right this longtime wrong. Florida can't fix what it won't 'fess up to.

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