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The Ugly Truth About Graduation Rates

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 7, 2008

Finally, Florida may have to honestly calculate its high school graduation rate.

As it stands, school districts count dropouts who later earn GEDs. But new Education Commissioner Eric Smith is rightly proposing the calculation be limited to students who graduate after finishing traditional high school.

The state Board of Education should accept his recommendation because it is the right thing to do, and not just because the federal government wants to standardize the calculation.

For too long, Floridians have been deluded into thinking our high schools are performing better than they are.

If you subtract those who later earn the General Educational Development certificate, researchers say Florida's high school graduation rate is at least 10 percentage points lower than what the Florida Department of Education has reported.

Last year, the state said 72.4 percent of high school students graduated in four years. For blacks and Hispanics, the rate was 58.7 percent and 66 percent, respectively.

Given that these numbers include GED recipients, it's easy to see why Florida high schools have been branded by Johns Hopkins University researchers as "dropout factories."

Smith's goal of bringing transparency to the graduation rate is welcomed.

When the real numbers come out, they won't be pretty.

But to move forward, we must know where we are.

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