The latest issue of U.S. News shines a light on North Carolina?s high school dropout problem.
An article from Eddy Ramirez focuses on dubious graduation numbers pumped out of states across the country, but the Tar Heel State earns special mention:
Education Trust was one of the first groups to show how states were padding their graduation numbers. North Carolina, for example, reported an almost perfect graduation rate in 2003 even though the rate of students who actually finished high school on time was closer to 64 percent. How? State officials counted only students who had earned diplomas and ignored everyone else. Now, the state makes calculations based on the number of students who start in the ninth grade and finish four years later?a more accurate standard.
The Education Trust pointed to another problem in a recent presentation to state legislators: lax standards that present an overly rosy picture of North Carolina student performance.
