What happens when states get more honest graduation rate reports?

We’ve discussed inaccurate graduation rate reporting in Kentucky many times such as here and here.

According to the latest Kentucky Department of Education nonacademic report, covering the Class of 2008, Kentucky supposedly graduated 84.52 percent of its high school students. Keep that figure in mind.

Well, the fact is that the formula used to fabricate that number was officially audited in 2006 and found unreliable. The real graduation rate in Kentucky is much lower.

How much lower?

We really won’t know for sure until the department gets its troubled Infinite Campus student tracking system up and on line for four years, perhaps around 2013 or so.

But the state of Oregon just got more honest with its citizens, and here is what the Oregonian says happened. The newspaper says that once more accurate reporting was conducted, “…only 68 percent of the class graduated within four years -- starkly lower than the 84 percent graduation rate the state reported for the same class just two months ago, based on its previous, looser definition.”

Hmmm – 84 percent – why does that number sound familiar?

So, what happened in Oregon might be the kind of number change that will happen here once honesty finally overcomes an unfortunate tendency in our education circles to fool us with figures.