Admit reality of graduation rates
Published Thursday, June 11, 2009 11:54 AM
By Randy Page
Summerville Journal Scene ®
Admitting the problem is the first step on the road to recovery. That’s why State Superintendent Jim Rex deserves full credit for drawing attention to South Carolina’s persistently low public high school graduation rate. Too bad he has waited two years into his term, and too bad he is still being dishonest about the actual size of the problem. During a well-scripted town hall meeting at Greenville’s J.L. Mann High School on May 28, 2009, Rex conceded that South Carolina has “some areas and some districts” dragging down state achievement averages. He went onto characterize certain areas and districts in the state as “dropout factories,” noting that students there “don’t have a shot at the American Dream.” Several days later, Rex took to the editorial page in papers across South Carolina and admitted that a statewide 73.3 percent on-time graduation rate is “appallingly low and completely unacceptable in today's economy.” Rex is wrong. According to the non-partisan national experts at Education Week Magazine, South Carolina’s on-time public high school graduation rate is actually 55.6 percent! That’s 18 percent lower than Rex’s claim. The number can be easily found in Education Week’s 2008 “Diplomas Count” report, published both in print and online. Rather than finally work to address this crippling economic and academic problem, Rex has been using editorial pages and town hall meetings to insist his schools successfully graduate 73.3 percent of students, not just 55.6 percent. He argues that the larger figure comes from a semi-official method of calculation recently adopted by the National Governor’s Association. This is not a minor dispute or petty case of semantics. These numbers are real students who are dropping out of high school all across South Carolina. Specifically, the difference is that 73.3 is the percentage of high school students who successfully complete ninth grade and then go onto to receive a full diploma three years later, while 55.6 is the percentage of students who complete eighth grade and then earn a diploma four years later. In March of 2008, the New York Times actually singled out South Carolina as having one of the nation’s largest gaps between actual and reported rates of student graduation, but Rex continues to use his 73 percent sound bite. In other words, 17 percent of students in a statewide class of students are lost every year between eighth and ninth grade. That’s over 9,400 students each year who don’t even make to the end of their freshman year. Jim Rex is trying to capitalize on the tragic figure to score political points or draw attention away from the severity of the dropout problem. The social and economic impact of a 55.6 percent graduate rate is almost unfathomable. For decades we’ve known that high school dropouts have lower lifetime earnings, higher rates of incarceration, shorter lifespans and higher levels of unemployment than their diploma holding peers. Some parents and grandparents still feel comfortable that their local school or district is radically bucking the statewide trend. Mathematically, that’s a tough assumption to make if the South Carolina average is so dramatically low. Still, these parents and grandparents must realize that their state tax dollars will be siphoned off in ever-greater amounts to pay for corrections, social services, adult education, and other government programs dropouts will be inevitably utilizing in the future. Now that Jim Rex has finally begun to recognize this crisis, we can only hope he gets honest about its scope and looks to innovative, outside the box (and frankly outside the System) solutions to combat it. Randy Page is President of South Carolinians for Responsible Government, a non-profit educational and advocacy organization committed to expanding equal access to quality education.
Your comparing data with different qualities from different fields. Rex cites the report that states the successful, on-time graduation rate of high school freshmen. You try to argue that data by citing other data, which is the four-year graduation rate of 8th graders. As a tip I'd suggest that, when arguing the efficiency of our education system, you attempt to use intellectually-sound methods. Comparison of contrasting groups does NOT support your argument. You and the report you cite also do not include other relevant factors: how many of those 8th graders remained in the state of South Carolina? If they no longer live here, then how could they be included as a dropout? Check census data: young families with children move out of SC; older couples with no children in the household are moving in. Thus, part of that "non-graduate" group falls into different terms - they could be graduates in other states. The truth is, our state's graduation rate grew during Rex's two years - that data is in the same report you cite, and you fail to include that data in your commentary. That seems to be because your only true goal is to have our taxpayer money go to private schools, and for a program that would not in any way benefit anyone other than those private schools and the families who already use those private schools. Just look at Minnesota - it tried it for one year, realized it benefited no one, that private schools only raised their tuitions by the same dollar amount that was provided in that funding, and that its supposed goal was defeated. In just one year was that realization made, but still at substantial cost to the taxpayers of that state. South Carolinians aren't going to fall for that. And if you expect anyone to fall for it, you'll have to apply actual comparitive methodology to do so, not these easily refuted apples-to-oranges comparisons you attempt. Then again, your unfounded and easily refuted argument does indicate a need for improvement to education...
Posted by: rob
Summerville Journal Scene ®
Admitting the problem is the first step on the road to recovery. That’s why State Superintendent Jim Rex deserves full credit for drawing attention to South Carolina’s persistently low public high school graduation rate. Too bad he has waited two years into his term, and too bad he is still being dishonest about the actual size of the problem. During a well-scripted town hall meeting at Greenville’s J.L. Mann High School on May 28, 2009, Rex conceded that South Carolina has “some areas and some districts” dragging down state achievement averages. He went onto characterize certain areas and districts in the state as “dropout factories,” noting that students there “don’t have a shot at the American Dream.” Several days later, Rex took to the editorial page in papers across South Carolina and admitted that a statewide 73.3 percent on-time graduation rate is “appallingly low and completely unacceptable in today's economy.” Rex is wrong. According to the non-partisan national experts at Education Week Magazine, South Carolina’s on-time public high school graduation rate is actually 55.6 percent! That’s 18 percent lower than Rex’s claim. The number can be easily found in Education Week’s 2008 “Diplomas Count” report, published both in print and online. Rather than finally work to address this crippling economic and academic problem, Rex has been using editorial pages and town hall meetings to insist his schools successfully graduate 73.3 percent of students, not just 55.6 percent. He argues that the larger figure comes from a semi-official method of calculation recently adopted by the National Governor’s Association. This is not a minor dispute or petty case of semantics. These numbers are real students who are dropping out of high school all across South Carolina. Specifically, the difference is that 73.3 is the percentage of high school students who successfully complete ninth grade and then go onto to receive a full diploma three years later, while 55.6 is the percentage of students who complete eighth grade and then earn a diploma four years later. In March of 2008, the New York Times actually singled out South Carolina as having one of the nation’s largest gaps between actual and reported rates of student graduation, but Rex continues to use his 73 percent sound bite. In other words, 17 percent of students in a statewide class of students are lost every year between eighth and ninth grade. That’s over 9,400 students each year who don’t even make to the end of their freshman year. Jim Rex is trying to capitalize on the tragic figure to score political points or draw attention away from the severity of the dropout problem. The social and economic impact of a 55.6 percent graduate rate is almost unfathomable. For decades we’ve known that high school dropouts have lower lifetime earnings, higher rates of incarceration, shorter lifespans and higher levels of unemployment than their diploma holding peers. Some parents and grandparents still feel comfortable that their local school or district is radically bucking the statewide trend. Mathematically, that’s a tough assumption to make if the South Carolina average is so dramatically low. Still, these parents and grandparents must realize that their state tax dollars will be siphoned off in ever-greater amounts to pay for corrections, social services, adult education, and other government programs dropouts will be inevitably utilizing in the future. Now that Jim Rex has finally begun to recognize this crisis, we can only hope he gets honest about its scope and looks to innovative, outside the box (and frankly outside the System) solutions to combat it. Randy Page is President of South Carolinians for Responsible Government, a non-profit educational and advocacy organization committed to expanding equal access to quality education.
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your comparing apples to oranges, Randy
Friday, June 12, 2009 12:44 PM
Your comparing data with different qualities from different fields. Rex cites the report that states the successful, on-time graduation rate of high school freshmen. You try to argue that data by citing other data, which is the four-year graduation rate of 8th graders. As a tip I'd suggest that, when arguing the efficiency of our education system, you attempt to use intellectually-sound methods. Comparison of contrasting groups does NOT support your argument. You and the report you cite also do not include other relevant factors: how many of those 8th graders remained in the state of South Carolina? If they no longer live here, then how could they be included as a dropout? Check census data: young families with children move out of SC; older couples with no children in the household are moving in. Thus, part of that "non-graduate" group falls into different terms - they could be graduates in other states. The truth is, our state's graduation rate grew during Rex's two years - that data is in the same report you cite, and you fail to include that data in your commentary. That seems to be because your only true goal is to have our taxpayer money go to private schools, and for a program that would not in any way benefit anyone other than those private schools and the families who already use those private schools. Just look at Minnesota - it tried it for one year, realized it benefited no one, that private schools only raised their tuitions by the same dollar amount that was provided in that funding, and that its supposed goal was defeated. In just one year was that realization made, but still at substantial cost to the taxpayers of that state. South Carolinians aren't going to fall for that. And if you expect anyone to fall for it, you'll have to apply actual comparitive methodology to do so, not these easily refuted apples-to-oranges comparisons you attempt. Then again, your unfounded and easily refuted argument does indicate a need for improvement to education...
Posted by: rob
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