THE OTHER SHOE DROPS: Updates To Previous Posts
† Garbage In, Garbage Out: Part II: A nationwide analysis by the nonprofit group America's Promise Alliance finds that fewer than half of students graduate public high school in four years with a regular diploma in 17 of the nation's 50 largest cities, with Detroit, Indianapolis and Cleveland at the bottom of the heap. Nationwide, 1.2 million students drop out of high school each year, with those attending suburban and rural schools more likely to graduate than those in urban schools, reports The Associated Press. Until now, no one knew how big the dropout problem was, because states use varying methods for calculating high school graduation rates.
The New York Times reports that “many states use an inflated graduation rate for federal reporting requirements under the No Child Left Behind law and a different one at home.” Some examples: MS reports a graduation rate of 87 percent to the feds, but schools superintendent, Hank Bounds uses 63 percent for a statewide campaign to lower the dropout rate; the “official” graduation rate in CA is 83 percent but the state estimates the true gradation rate is 67 percent; and NY tells Washington, DC that 77 percent of its students graduate high school, but the actual figure is 65 percent.
The disconnect between the “official” graduation rates and the actual graduation rates occurs because “many states inflate their official rate by counting dropouts who later earn a G.E.D. as graduates or by removing them from calculations altogether,” according to The Times.
The current version of the No Child Left Behind law does not set national high school graduation goals, and allows each state to use its own formula to determine school completion rates and its own targets for improvement. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings wants to require states to use a single federal formula to determine graduation and dropout rates when the NCLB law is rewritten and renewed. The Times reports, “The requirement would be one of the most far-reaching regulatory actions taken by any education secretary, experts said, because it would affect the official statistics issued by all 50 states and each of the nation’s 14,000 public high schools.”
† Desperate Congressional Candidate Fakes Disappearance: Former NH Dem congressional candidate Gary Dodds was sentenced to 20 days in jail and a year of home confinement for falsifying evidence, causing a false public alarm and leaving the scene of a car accident. “Dodds, 43, claimed he hit his head in the crash in April 2006 and nearly drowned in a river before being found 27 hours later,” reports The Associated Press. County Attorney Thomas Velardi accused Dodds of concocting the bogus disappearance to attract attention to his foundering campaign in a four-way race to win Dem nomination for the 1st Congressional District.
† Hunting Hokies: A bill introduced by Rep. Jason Murphey (R) to allow military veterans and others trained to use guns to carry concealed weapons on OK college campuses has been shelved, reports The Associated Press. Supporters of the measure argued that properly trained people with concealed handguns could avert the next Virginia Tech massacre, while opponents countered that police arriving on the scene would be unable to tell whether an armed person was a "deranged gunman or someone who thinks he is doing good vigilante work." Never mind that by the time the police arrive on the scene the hero would have killed the deranged gunman so the police wouldn’t have to really sort out who is who.
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