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Schools of Thought

Translating education research into usable knowledge

Wordplay

COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA
Office of the Governor

Mark R. Warner FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Governor October 17, 2005

Contact: Kevin Hall Charles Pyle, Dept. of Education
Phone: (804) 225-4260 (804) 371-2420
Cell Phone: (804) 393-9406
Internet: www.governor.virginia.gov www.doe.virginia.gov

GOVERNOR WARNER ANNOUNCES GRADUATION
RATE FOR CLASS OF 2005
~ Nearly half of graduates earn Advanced Studies diplomas ~
~ 2,639 benefit from Governor’s Project Graduation initiative ~

RICHMOND - Governor Mark R. Warner today announced that 73,735, or 94.6 percent, of the high school seniors who made up the class of 2005 graduated this year. The class of 2005 was the second class of seniors required to pass Standards of Learning (SOL) tests to earn a standard or advanced diploma.

The percentage of seniors who earned a diploma in 2005 was slightly higher than the percentage for last year, when 94.2 percent of the seniors in the class of 2004 earned a diploma. The percentage of seniors who graduated with a diploma in 2005 was nearly identical to the average for the previous five years (94.5 percent).

------------

Well, gee, if we define graduation rate as the percent of seniors who graduate, that's telling us.... wait, no, that's telling us absolutetly nothing.

The graduation rate is the number of freshman who enter 9th grade divided by the number of seniors who recieve diplomas. The graduation rate for the class of 2005 is that equation applied to students entering high school is 2001. Practically no states have the data systems to do that computation at the moment, but it is simply disingenuous to make up these bogus measures and call them "graduation rates" -- and technical wording aside, it is clearly implied that 94.6% is the graduation rate. North Carolina uses the same laughable metric and actually reports that to the federal government as their official graduation rate (VA reports a more reasonable number as their official count). If you were wondering, independent estimates put Virginia's graduation rate at about 74%.

Gov. Warner has been a tremendous leader on education issues as chief executive of Virginia and head of the National Governor's Association. Shame on you, Governor, for taking a backwards step.

Update: AGH! Washington Post, what are you doing?!

Update 2: The Richmond Times-Dispatch, on the other hand, reports the information in its proper context.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 18, 2005 at 12:03 AM. |

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