Shannon,

These numbers confirm that DPI reports exorbitant graduation rates. Of course, DPI is not the only state education agency to do this, but they are particularly bad. See this June, 2005 article from the Washington Post, “North Carolina’s Near Perfect Graduation Rate, and Other Fables.” The article points out that DPI reported a 2002 graduation rate of 92 percent and a 2003 rate of 97 percent, the highest in the nation. How did they do it? They excluded dropouts.

For the 2005-2006 school year, the U.S. Department of Education will require states to calculate their graduation rate using a method similar to the new DOE report.