According to data from the U.S. Department of Education, the high school graduation rate reached a new high of 81%. This is based on the four-year graduation rate. If one looks at the six-year rate and includes students who receive a GED, the rate is well above 90%.
The jurisdiction with the lowest four-year graduation rate is the District of Columbia at 62%. D. C. has been devoted to corporate reform since the arrival of Michelle Rhee in 2007.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
What is the quality of the diploma? Should we be proud?
Bob, who knows? Teachers are bullied so much that many are afraid to fail a student. Standardized tests that are absurd need to be passed in order to graduate: who would have more of any understanding about the quality of a diploma nowadays, “reform” is responsible for the “quality”.
I suspect in wealthy areas there are probably kids graduating with solid knowledge in poor areas…maybe if they get lucky they will have a teacher who is about to retire who can actually have the courage to teach a bit of a decent curriculum.
An understanding
Reform…because reform is…
Knowledge, in poor areas…
Ugh autocorrect and angry typing!!!
Exactly, I guarantee the diploma is a useless measure of achievement. The goals of American education: 1. figure out how to make a profit for some 2. Increase graduation rates by moving students along who can not do the simplest math or construct a single coherent sentence in any language. The improved graduation rates impress some, I suppose. (I don’t think the general population is that stupid.) 3. Administrators make a decent salary and testing companies are huge beneficiaries as well. The genuine needs of the students are the last to be considered.
It is the best of times, it is the worst of times, it is the age of wisdom, it is the age of foolishness, it is the epoch of belief, it is the epoch of incredulity, it is the season of Light, it is the season of Darkness, it is the spring of hope, it is the winter of despair, we have everything before us, we have nothing before us, we are all going direct to Heaven, we are all going direct the other way . . .
author please
Charles Dickens, Tale of Two Cities http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/29595.html
Thanks, Joe!!!
I could have looked it up, I know it to be a famous quote, but I wish that all would use quotation marks and then give the author.
Won’t the edubullies argue that their 20+ year policies have increased the rate and we are reaping the benefit of what they have sown? Is this reason to continue? You know, that will be the spin, right?
@ Tim – kids don’t get to enjoy the classics anymore, except in a close Rheeding sort of way.
Donna, With the employment situation so bleak, kids who drop out may not get a job. That seems more likely explanation than edubullies’ policies.
I personally know many of my daughter’s contemporaries, with college degrees, who are working as baristas, bartenders, receptionists, waitresses – forget those who drop out not getting jobs. Jobs for “regular people” don’t exist. It is who you know, rather, who your daddy knows – its those connections, for the most part. So sad to hear the elite talk out of both sides of their mouths how education is important; yet they dumb it down for the rest of us, tout community college for those bogus degrees, and push their kids though TFA then onward and upward. Impoverished kids don’t have a chance, nor do middle class kids. I see it every day.
There are opportunities outside of the legal economy.
Schools can be closed for having kids not graduate so credit recovery and plenty of chicanery goes on. Kids know it. I’m not for failing kids but the graduation rates are happening because of the inability to not graduate
Principals exert undue pressure on teachers to alter grades.
This is perfect example of taking good news and turning it around to make it look bad. This blog is permanently negative. Who is doing the spin?
The article is positive and does not bully teachers. Edubulies, Rheeding, we are all going direct to …. are negative comments based on lack of understanding.
Another way to look at it. Graduation rates are up because the teachers are doing a better job. Kudos. Let us leave it at that.
Raj,
I wrote about the successes of American public education in my last book, Reign of Error. The test scores are the highest ever; the graduation rate is the highest ever; the dropout rate is the lowest ever. I called out Arne Duncan, President Obama, the Republicans, Bill Gates, and Eli Broad, among others, for constantly seeking to belittle public education. These are trend lines over 40 years, and in some cases, a century. The greatest growth in test scores occurred before No Child Left Behind was installed. I am glad to see that Duncan is now drawing attention to the hard work of teachers and administrators, who dedicate their lives to making a difference for children. None of the gains that I have documented can be attributed to high-stakes testing or privatization. Read my book. Check it out of the local public library, if there is one.
Congratulations to the many educators throughout the United States who are helping more youngsters graduate. Assuming that these statistics can be believed, there probably are a number of reasons for high school graduation rates to be up.
These might include more focus on high school graduation, more options for young people, more pressure on high schools to help youngsters graduate, more high quality early childhood for students from low income families helping youngsters be better prepared for kg. I’m sure there are more reasons but these could be among the explanations.
I am only questioning the negativity of this blog site. Clearly the teachers are responsible for the gain in the graduation rates. I acknowledged the same in my comment. But my comment relates to the other comments above mine. Especially Edubullies, Rheeding, going direct to Heaven, we are all going direct the other way . . ., deformers etc.
Now you are acknowledging that Duncan is drawing attention to the hard work of teachers. But you bring in a new topic of high stakes testing, but not teaching. And some how the successes in the field of education instead of being the result of hard work by teachers seems to be attributed to the back lash against High Stakes Testing and No Child Left Behind. Is that your thesis?
Besides I do not like your comment “Read my book. Check it out of the local public library, if there is one.” This comment makes two assumptions and they are: I cannot afford to buy the book and two that I live in the boon docks where there is no public library. Both of your assumptions are wrong. Have you ever considered that I may not want to read your book?
Raj, if you read my book you would be better informed. I never tell any reader of this blog to buy my book because then it would appear that the purpose of the blog was to make money (I think I get $1 for each paperback sold, maybe less). No one pays me to write the blog or to spend hours every day maintaining it and adding new items for the future. You don’t have to read my book, nor do you have to read the blog. Your choice.
Raj, I find it hard to like you. Go away unless YOU have something positive to contribute.
“Silver Linings”
We need to look for silvers
In every thunder cloud
Critiques by Diane Silvers
Should never be allowed
Diane is not responsible for making it look bad. It is Deformers(i.e., corporate reformers, governors, hedge-fund managers, and national media moguls) who twist the fact into a bogus, phony narrative. They don’t really care how kids are doing in schools. They use education as a scapegoat to bash even though their stakes have nothing to do with how kids are doing in schools but everything to do with financial portfoilio and investing. And they have chrissake for whatever BS they make. Ayn Rand fanatsy. Leave it at that.
“Graduation rates are up because the teachers are doing a better job.”
And you wonder why we are negative all the time? How about saying “teachers are doing a great job.” “Better” sounds like you believe those gains were achieved in spite of us as we sat around and did nothing over the past 10-12 years.
Also, I didn’t see any quotes from Arne acknowledging and praising the role teachers played in the rise of graduation rates. I’m sure HuffPo did not include the USDE’s full press release in the article, but I will bet my house he made no mention of the hard work made by teachers.
Here’s a link to the press release:
http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-high-school-graduation-rate-hits-new-record-high
Here’s the 2nd paragraph:
“”America’s students have achieved another record-setting milestone,” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said. “We can take pride as a nation in knowing that we’re seeing promising gains, including for students of color. This is a vital step toward readiness for success in college and careers for every student in this country, and these improvements are thanks to the hard work of teachers, principals, students and families.”
Raj.. I understand your point – truly. And yes, it is great that more students are graduating. But as a teacher mid career, I am well aware of the difference between passing a test and gaining a true education. I want students to be life long learners, to be curious about the world and with the skills to independently seek out knowledge. I want them to learn to get along with others and to care about others. I want them to be able to question things. Our current education climate is not looking at children beyond a test. This has led to judging success based soley on passing tests. There is a right answer and a wrong answer – no questions… no debate. If little Johnny is a bully, self-centered, steals, does not actively participate in class, does not pursue knowledge beyond learning how to pass a test and manages to pass a test, he will graduate. The testing climate has led students to HATE school. Every other week there is a mandated test for the purpose of collecting data. Students (or their teachers) never get results from high stakes tests back to even be able to help their students. The tests are now being used to rank teachers. Students associate learning only with passing tests – that is all. Why? This is what Duncan and RTTT policy has created – an environment ALL about tests and data. What kind of citizen will “Johnny” be? And what kind of “graduate” who has grown up in this testing climate will love to pick up a book to read or to research why ? Reading is nowadays about reading excerpts and learning how to answer questions linked to the excerpts. And “graduation” is hollow if a student does not have the necessary skills to be a life-long learner. This is far different than the skills needed for life-long test-taking. A graduate from Sidwell Friends has a very different view of education than a graduate of a title one public high school overtaken by the mandated almost non-stop TESTING.
So, let us be happy for those who graduate from high school but let us not be fooled by higher graduation rates. Let us make graduating from high school MEANINGFUL for those graduating (not viewed as an escape from hell).
Well, if you don’t like the issues people discuss here or the points of conversations, or whatever, then, perhaps, you’d better have a second thought about visiting this blog.
I have some great property for sale. We should talk.
Denver public schools are “up” to 62.8%. “Reform” since 2005. Colorado at 77.3%. Not very important till remediation numbers come out later this winter.
Of course those pushed out drop off the map, and a little story about one of my students, a special needs girl who left my middle school and went to high school for 3 years. At that point she was “pushed out”. However, on graduation day, there she was walking across the stage, diploma in hand.
And then we ask, how many passed with D- average. Have they really learned? Yes, they graduate but what have they learned. More about the scam and the solution here https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781475817713
” Have they really learned? Yes, they graduate but what have they learned.”
What constitutes “really learned”? How can we “really” know?
And no it’s not discernible through standardized testing nor grades nor any other means other than a conversation/discussion with the student him/herself–maybe there should be some sort of exit interview with the student picking the teacher with whom they feel most comfortable. Maybe starting with an open ended question such as “You’re coming to the end of your K-12 experiences. What do you think you’ve learned?”
And even that process would not be suitable for all students, so maybe there should be some other student lead process.
DS, the exit interview is a fine idea. Comments could be shared for reflection/improving tactics at Prof Dev sessions–which would be more meaningful than the imported scripted speakers.
Dr. Ravitch,
I wanted to share with you an article I ran across yesterday (link at bottom of my small rant). I am finishing my PhD at The Ohio State University in string pedagogy/education, and I currently teach in K-12 public education.
I find it deplorable that my subject, what I have devoted the better part of my life to, Orchestra, is considered a Non-Value class.
The label says all there is to say about how the legislature feels about my course and other courses in the arts.
How could the Greeks have known long ago the importance of an arts education (trivium, quadrivium) and yet we have decided it is of no-value?
Now, policy makers believe the best way to determine what value I may or may not bring to my school, district, and more importantly, my students is through shared attribution?
I can only hope that through education efforts and concerned citizens addressing these policy makers we can begin the process or re-envisioning education in a positive light.
Until then, I will begin filling out applications in Finland.
http://www.plunderbund.com/2015/02/15/ohio-budget-bill-hb64-proposes-significant-changes-to-teacher-evaluation-system/
Sincerely, Aaron
Sent from my iPhone
>
Aaron,
It’s great that you are informed and interested.
I shared info. about Ohio’s 5 out of 8 rule, with a young guy who has been teaching band for a couple of years, in a public school (tenuously, because of cutbacks). Raised in a family of Ohio Republicans, including a mother who is a teacher, he and his family’s response was a shrug.
I shared the info. with a school librarian, and the response was, what will be, will be.
IMO, rank and file conservatives, would rather go down with the boat, than rock it.
There are several studies that have analyzed the brains of conservatives and liberals (and everything in between), and found that the conservative brain has a much stronger respect for authority, yielding to it even when it is against their own interests. Liberals not so much, being more comfortable resisting authority.
Perhaps that is what is happening. If indeed they are rank and file conservatives. They might just be yielding to their inherent programming, just as liberals like myself often bristle when told to do something by someone in authority.
Of course these generalizations are just that. Individuals who self identify as liberal or conservative may do exactly the opposite of what these studies indicate, especially if their own self interest becomes a greater or lesser priority than their particular natures would handle it.
Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind. Conservatives also score low on empathy and high on apprehension over new experiences. But they score high on valuing loyalty and order above self interest. Fertile grounds for demagogues and manipulation. The problem is not conservatism which used to mean something, but that conservatism has been taken over by those with other interests.
It is always interesting watching the conservative rigidity play out when they are affected personally. It becomes an “I, Robot”, Asimovian moment.
Linda:
If I may change your last sentence:
“IMO, rank and file teachers OF ALL POLITICAL STRIPES, would rather go down with the boat, than rock it.”
The not so undercurrent of fear of jobs due to bullying by administrator’s attitude of “my way or the highway” dominates the public education realm these days.
Interesting to note that the new Common Core math (algebra I) and ELA tests administered to NY high school students will have no adverse effect on graduation rates as cut scores will be set to match the same passing rates as the pre-CC NY Regents exams.
The old Regents passing cut score for algebra I was 30 points out of a possible 85.
Algebra I students earned a passing scaled score of 65 if they answered 35% of the test items correctly. With the new CC algebra I, this raw score % will probably fall below 25%. Under the new super rigorous CC math, New York high school students need only know/understand/master 20 points out of 85 possible. Now that’s rigor baby! College and career ready for sure.
Makes one wonder why they are torturing our grade 3 to 8 students with a near 70% failure rate in math – and when they get to high school they use cut score manipulation to produce an artificial pass rate of 75%.
I’m not an overly cynical person, but manufacturing a crisis in lower grades (the schools are failing, the schools are failing!!) helps the reformers arguments, while adjusting the cut scores in the higher grades allows them to take credit for the years of standardized testing they advocated.
None of it is true of course, but that’s how they can play it, especially in the corporate media.
The “old”NY Algebra Regents was out of 100 pts….when it got changed to 87 pts and cut scores then 30 pts translated to passing. The CC Alg 1 is still a 30 pt cut score and there are less multiple choice to “guess” on and the low kids are doing exactly that. The old days had a more valid, accurate picture of whether or not kids could do Algebra. The January CC Alg 1 did not even have 1 solve a linear equation….but lots of what used to be Algebra 2. (We had a 15 year old special Ed boy in tears over it. )
We should have left well enough alone…what was wrong with a local diploma? Now a Regents diploma does not mean what it used to….but the legislators and even parents who went to school under the “old” Regents don’t know that. Manipulating cut scores is pure deception and lying with statistics.
Also schools are punished for not having a great graduation rate….hence credit recovery …Seniors who do little to no work, maybe don’t even have decent attendance magically graduate after 2 weeks of credit recovery……Not a higher standard, but that’s what happens when harsh punishment is imposed.
Common Core has been a disaster and the worst is yet to come.
A 30 cut out of 87 on the new CC algebra test produces a passing rate equal to the old Regents test. So how is this more rigorous? Is it just as easy to pass but harder to score in the 80% or 90% range? If so, how does passing equate to college and career readiness? Voodoo Algebra?
“Raj Acharya
February 16, 2015 at 10:51 am
I am only questioning the negativity of this blog site. Clearly the teachers are responsible for the gain in the graduation rates.”
I’m a parent not a teacher and I think your bias is showing by continuing to attribute the rise to teachers. That’s really narrow.
If you blame teachers 100% for a lower rate, I guess you have to credit teachers 100% for the higher rate, but I question that narrow focus. I think it’s odd.
I think if you asked people outside education what might have “contributed” they’d have all kinds of opinions. They might point to what has been a really dramatic decline in teen pregnancy (cut by 1/2 since the 1990’s) or a big decline in crime, or the availability of health care to lower income kids (expanded dramatically since the 1990’s).
What about students? They had nothing to do with graduating high school?
Since the graduation rate is so high now, that must be the reason that new standardized tests like the Keystones here in PA are being made graduation requirements for high schoolers. Can’t have the rate that high. It might indicate that schools are NOT failing so much.
I’m waiting on my big bonus from Wall Street.
Raj,
I just have to say that I am so grateful, in all seriousness, that you contribute to this blog.
Harlan Underhill left thb blog, And I miss him. His Tea Party views were hysterical and chock full of humor for me. I have never been so enraptured by such absurd and narcissistic thinking.
You have now stepped into that role and thanks to your generosity, have provded countless hours of laughter.
Feeling insulted because buyig a book trumps borrowing a book? Feeling personally wounded by the host because she siggest you visit the library and read up?
HYSTERICAL!
Raj, you need your own sitcom.
Raj, thank you for making my day.
You might be better off not reading and gaining knowledge. Just rely on your own Raj-like thinking. I do not own a TV and have no access to sitcoms.
You have solved that problem for me . . . . .
Thank you, Raj. Keep on posting, as I will keep reading . . . .
I haven’t read this whole article with comments but Robert Scott former commissioner of TX stated that there were different opinions on how to computer a graduation rate and in 2010 there was some agreement to use the same formula; I would assume there are some who would “fudge” the numbers to make a politician look good .
“Compact Rate Definition
The numerator of the Compact Rate is the number of graduates who receive regular or advanced diplomas within four years of entering ninth grade. Students who continue high school in the fall following their expected graduation date or receive General Educational Development (GED) certificates are not considered graduates in the Compact Rate.
The denominator of the Compact Rate is the number of students who begin ninth grade in a given school year adjusted for the number of students who transfer in or out over the next three years.
The NGA compact formula is as follows:
graduation rate = on-time graduates in year x
(first-time entering ninth graders in year x – 4) + (transfers in) – (transfers out)
The Compact Rate differs from other graduation rates in two critical ways: (1) the numerator is made up of graduates who receive regular or advanced diplomas within four years of entering ninth grade, whereas other graduation rates use different criteria to define graduates; and (2) the Compact Rate is derived from actual student-level data, rather than the estimated student counts used to calculate measures such as leaver and attrition rates. These distinctions are thought to better align the methods of calculating, reporting, and analyzing graduation rates among the 50 states, thereby improving the accuracy and consistency of results.
An attrition rate, for example, does not t