The latest edweek.org rankings are out and TPS's graduation rate is rated at 44.2%. They use the different equation to figure this out by seeing how many people who start high school, versus graduate high school. According to the Gates Foundation and edweek.org, 55.8% of TPS students don't graduate. What do you think? Last October the Big 8 self reported their graduation scores and TPS's rate was 86.1%. I guess this is the difference between self-reported scores and independent analysis. Both have completely different motivations for releasing their scores. In my opinion, the edweek/Gates foundation is closer to reality, but they do undercount the students who do leave for other districts. The district/state reported scores are developed in a way that are not consistent and assume that the students who disappear without showing up in another school as transferring. But the districts need a high graduation rate to impress upon their yearly ranking, so why change it :).
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071016/NEWS04/71...
You can read the complete report at:
http://www.edweek.org/ew/toc/2008/06/05/index.html
Stan Joplin used to complain that transfers hurt his team graduation rate even if they graduated from another school. I glanced at the Gates report, but didn't see how they account for transfers within or out of the district. The 86.1% doesn't strike me as realistic either. Is there an industry standard available for this?
I thought the State was implementing a student ID system where they can track them if they move around Ohio. I think that was supposed to start this year, but I wonder what happens if they can't find the student, will they say they transferred out of state? Who knows. It should help some. If they are doing new ID, the district should already begin to know what their numbers are right now and how it is changing. If you look at the motivations between the two groups, edweek has no motivation to make it low. Districts and the states have all the motivation to make it high. I think 80% is more off than 40%. I bet the graduation rate averaged across TPS is in the 5x% range (maybe high 50s).
this city is going to be filled with uneducated punks living off the government. I have a bachelors and working towards MBA and I'm having trouble finding a job...I can't imagine how these kids will support themselves without a high school education.
I admittedly was a slacker in high school (TPS) and still graduated with no problem. You really have to be a major slacker not to graduate from high school.