Human Services News

From Education Newsfeed:

U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings today announced she will take administrative steps to ensure all states use the same formula to calculate how many students graduate from high school on time, and how many drop out.

Secretary Spellings stated the data would be made public so that people nationwide can compare how students of every race, background, and income level are performing.

The Secretary made the announcement during remarks on the need for a more comprehensive and precise definition of "graduation rate" at a press conference hosted by America's Promise Alliance and State Farm on the Alliance's dropout prevention campaign.

Many urban districts graduate as few as 25 to 35 percent of students on time, compared to 75 percent in suburban districts.

It is a pleasure to be here today with General and Mrs. Powell of America's Promise, Senators Richard Burr and Jeff Bingaman, Marc Morial of the National Urban League, Ed Rust of State Farm and Vicki Phillips of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

One reason that the high school dropout crisis is known as the "silent epidemic" is that the problem is frequently masked or minimized by inconsistent and opaque data reporting systems.

For example, in some districts, a student who leaves school is counted as a dropout only if he or she registers as one.

Last May I was pleased to join the First Lady, several governors, and others for the National Summit on America's Silent Epidemic.

As we've seen with NCLB, disaggregated data is a powerful motivator for change and improvement, and especially for closing the achievement gap between poor and minority students and their peers.

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