7/17/08

Columbus Dispatch Blog

Jennifer Smith Richards

Ohio is moving to a new system of counting graduates, as we reported in March, that is expected to lower the state’s graduation rate.

Well, that’s exactly what has happened in California, which also moved to a system that tracks individual students using a unique identifying number. (It’s sort of like a social security number.)

A Los Angeles Times story says: “… the state released numbers Wednesday estimating that 1 in 4 California students — and 1 in 3 in Los Angeles — quit school. The rates are considerably higher than previously acknowledged but lower than some independent estimates.”

That brings L.A. Unified’s rate to about 34 percent. The rate before the new system was used was closer to 25 percent, the story says. Read it here.

State education officials here have said it might be necessary to lower the standard - currently, all high schools should have a 90 percent graduation rate - to accommodate the more-accurate (read: higher) counting of dropouts. But Ohio Department of Education spokeswoman Karla Warren said yesterday that there aren’t specific plans right now to do so.