Although the report states that Utah doesn't outline requirements needed for graduation and fails to assess graduates, Hales said district leaders are constantly talking with higher education officials to identify the most seamless transition to college and university level courses. She also mentioned the Utah Basic Skills Competency Test tests students on the expected learning requirements for the state's high schools.

"We will not be totally satisfied until we have 100 percent of our students graduate," Hales said, adding that Utah is one of only two states with the Common Student Identifier, a number that sticks with specific students throughout their education, allowing the state to track their progress in and out of every school year.

"You can see they've used their own formulas to come up with their numbers, and they're just plain wrong," Hales said. Another discrepancy includes the fact that Utah requires 24 credits to graduate, not the 15 that is indicated in Diplomas Count 2009.

The report identifies some of the best practices of "overachieving" districts in the nation, as well as follows statewide improvements to education policies.

"As a nation, we have a long way to go in order to reconcile the goal of raising college attendance and completion rates with troubling data on the proportion of U.S. students who graduate from high schools in the traditional four-year time span," Swanson said Monday. "The rates are generally not as high as we would like them to be, and the pace of improvement needs to be must faster."

E-MAIL: wleonard@desnews.com