Grad Rates on other peoples’ minds, too

As Kentucky gets ready to host its “Graduate Kentucky Forum” this weekend, Education Week reports (subscription, but a free trial is currently available) that 13 states, eight years after passage of No Child Left Behind, still do not report separate graduation rates for students still learning English.

A PDF table linked from the news article (click on the graph titled “GRADUATION RATES 2006-07”) shows that Kentucky is one of those 13 states that still has this hole in their graduation rate statistics.

The same Ed Week table shows the overall graduation rate Kentucky reported to the US Department of Education for the 2006-07 school year. That rate is not credible. Ed Week’s table lists that erroneous rate as 83.7 percent. This rate, however, was fabricated using the same inflated formulas that were officially audited in 2006 and found to be – inflated.

So, the forum meeting this weekend has some interesting data problems to discuss. That should start with a discussion on getting serious about accurately reporting the problem to the schools and the public.