States Hide Big High School Dropout Rates

Many states report rosy high school graduation rates to Washington but publicize much lower figures at home, the New York Times reports. The higher rates often fail to account for the nation's growing legion of dropouts, but states are leery to give the feds bad numbers in part because of penalties associated with the No Child Left Behind Act. The education chief is considering a single federal formula to settle the issue.

California’s official graduation rate in DC is 83%, but the state website says 67%. Mississippi reports a rate of 87% to Washington but cites a figure of 63% in the state. When dropouts are factored in, the numbers drop. “We were losing about 13,000 dropouts a year, but publishing reports that said we had graduation rate percentages in the mid-80s,” said Mississippi's schools chief. “Mathematically, that just doesn’t work out.”  (More education stories.)