Florida's high school graduation rate debatable

How well do Florida high schools graduate their students? The answer depends on where you look.

The state's own calculation shows significant improvement over several years. The graduation rate increased 10 percentage points to 71 percent from 2000 to 2006.

But a notable education weekly shows Florida on a roller-coaster ride to mediocrity. Education Week magazine puts Florida's 2006 graduation rate at just 57.5 percent, a mark that has dropped in the past few years, according to a report released last week.

The disparity highlights the frustration school administrators and education experts feel when it comes to measuring academic achievement. Despite demands for a better yardstick, every state and every think tank calculates success differently.

Florida measures graduation rates by including GED diplomas in its counts, which most experts say tends to inflate the numbers. Florida also follows individual students from ninth-grade, however, accounting for those who transfer in and out of the state and those who choose to leave school altogether.

The Education Week survey uses a calculation that looks at the percentage of students who advance from grade to grade each year, a measure some think is questionable.

Significant numbers of students can move into or out of a school, and that can artificially inflate or deflate the magazine's count, said Sherman Dorn, an education professor at the University of South Florida.

"I would take the Education Week numbers with about three pounds of salt," Dorn said.

The magazine, which conducts the graduation survey with the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, says it adheres to what federal guidelines say is a "graduation rate."

It also takes only standard high school diplomas into account, something that local administrators have quibbled with.

"If you have a special education student, why wouldn't you count a special education diploma?" asked David Steele, the Hillsborough County school district's chief information and technology officer.

The state soon will stop including GED diplomas in its counts, and experts such as Dorn expect its graduate rates will fall.

State Education Commissioner Eric J. Smith, while noting the differences in methodology between his office and the magazine, recently told The Associated Press, "regardless of how the rate is calculated, there is no doubt that improvements are needed."