Published: June 12, 2009 05:11 pm      

Fewer dropouts — 06/13/09

More Kentucky young people ernng high school degrees

According to the SREB, the percentage of high school students in Kentucky earning their degrees increased by 9 percent between 1996 and 2006. Only South Carolina (13.1 percent) and Tennessee (12.8 percent) showed higher gains among the SREB states during the decade.

While school districts throughout the nation have been sharply — and rightly— criticized for under-reporting their graduation rates, the SREB calculates graduation rates by comparing the number of high school graduates a state reports with the number of ninth graders it reported having four years earlier.

Typically, the difference between the number of high school freshmen reported with the number who graduate four years later is much higher than the dropout rates reported by individual school districts. Because the SREB uses a different method than the federal government does to calculate graduation rates, we think the SREB’s numbers are much more accurate than the federal government’s. That makes the improvement in graduation rates reported by the SREB even more encouraging.

Nevertheless, the SREB’s annual “Diplomas Count” study emphasizes that even with the improving numbers far too many students in the 16 states — and the nation as a whole for that matter — are failing to earn the most basic level of education needed for success in life.

“Diplomas Count” estimates that about 1.3 million students who should have been part of the class of 2009 nationwide did not graduate, including about 564,000 in SREB states. More than 100,000 students did not graduate in Texas and Florida, along with more than 64,000 in Georgia, 47,000 in North Carolina and nearly 34,000 in Virginia.

“It's encouraging news to see that states and public schools are helping more students graduate from high school,” SREB President Dave Spence said. “States need to continue to raise graduation rates — and should focus on ensuring that a high school diploma means students are ready to begin college or career training.”

Translation: Don’t just reward students with high school diplomas for spending the required amount of time in school. Make sure they learn the skills and receive the knowledge that will help them succeed as adults.

Individuals need more than just a high school degree to guarantee success in today’s world, but without a high school degree, it is almost a certainty that they will spend their lives in the lowest rungs of the economic ladder. That’s why it is so amazing to us that any young person today would drop out of school.