Graduation Rates

Here’s an interesting bit of information about how State’s report their graduation rates under No Child Left Behind. It seems that there are two different sets of numbers – the one that is reported to the government and the one the government calculates themselves. And these two numbers are substantially different.

States’ Data Obscure How Few Finish High School
By SAM DILLON – Published: March 20, 2008
JACKSON, Miss. — When it comes to high school graduation rates, Mississippi keeps two sets of books. One team of statisticians working at the state education headquarters here recently calculated the official graduation rate at a respectable 87 percent, which Mississippi reported to Washington. But in another office piled with computer printouts, a second team of number crunchers came up with a different rate: a more sobering 63 percent.