Comments about ‘Many U.S. schools report higher graduation rates’

Congrats to the graduates, but also to the educators who have kept Utah at or near the top among the states in graduation rates for years. And that is with the lowest funding level in the country. It's time to applaud our teachers and administrators for running such an efficient system--more efficient than any other public school state system and more efficient that almost any private school system. Efficiency defined in my mind as the ratio of output to input. Output consistently - by any measure -- ranges from a little above average to excellent. Input -- as measured by financial input -- the lowest in the country. Our schools do very well in Utah. Amazingly well.

Many states report a higher graduation percentage than those passing the standardized test. I thought students couldn't graduate without passing these tests.

In a small community, a middle school sent 350 students to start the ninth grade at high school. Four years later, 128 students graduated. The school reported a dropout rate of less than two percent. Of the 350 who started high school, what happened to the 222 who didn't graduate?

It seems that figures can be modified.

Worf: a lot of those missing numbers end up taking alternative routes like the GRE, votech, or adult ed. Many end up transferring out of the district completely.

Stats don't tell the whole story.