Posted July 18, 2005 to Education News | Section Home | Print

Simon Discusses Need for Better Graduation Rate Data

DENVER -- Deputy Secretary of Education Ray Simon discussed the importance of high school reform, starting with the urgent need for better graduation rate data to make high schools more accountable and to help prevent students from dropping out. He announced that the Department will be calculating an "Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate" for all states as a first step. Simon made the announcement as part of his remarks at the annual Education Commission of the States meeting.

"A more comprehensive and accurate assessment of how many students graduate from high school is sorely needed," Simon said. "We understand and appreciate that to accurately calculate such information, states will need much more comprehensive and sophisticated data collection systems than the vast majority currently have in place."

As a result, the Department will publish, alongside states' currently reported graduation rates under NCLB, an interim estimator, known as the Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate. This rate will be used while the Department encourages states to work toward the ultimate goal of improving their own data collection systems. "The change makes the data easier to understand, is more accurate and makes the system more transparent," Simon said.

The Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate will be compiled from existing data submitted through the Common Core of Data (CCD), a program of the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics. The CCD is a comprehensive, annual, national statistical database of information concerning all public elementary and secondary schools (approximately 94,000) and local education agencies (approximately 17,000; of these, about 14,500 are regular school districts that operate schools). The Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate has been shown to track very closely with true on-time graduation rates. It is the number of high school graduates receiving a regular diploma in a given year divided by the average of the number of students enrolled in eighth grade 5 years earlier, ninth grade 4 years earlier, and 10th grade three years earlier.

"Improving how we understand and report on more accurate graduation rates allows us to better target resources and tailor instruction for kids who might otherwise be invisible until it's too late," Simon added. "The Department will now have a truer picture of the national trends and can identify which states most need to improve their individual reporting."

In addition, Simon announced that the Department has approved a request from the state of Washington to use an extended graduation rate when calculating its state-set achievement goals (also known as "Adequate Yearly Progress" or AYP) totals under the No Child Left Behind Act.

The Department used several criteria before granting Washington's request, such as determining whether the statute allowed the change, whether Washington has been implementing its accountability provisions, and whether the state is on track to test all students in grades 3-8 and once more before graduation. In addition, the Department found that Washington has made good-faith efforts to inform parents, such as having school report cards with "all the right elements," Simon said, and placing their 50 state-approved tutoring providers on the Internet for the public to view. And, the Department found that Washington has the technical ability to track students in their fifth and sixth years of high school with a data infrastructure system that is already in place and is consistently being adjusted and improved.

Simon said that the final and most important criterion the Department used was whether the change was good for the students themselves.

"We believe the answer is yes. School dropout rates are at crisis levels. We want to see incentives created to encourage dropouts to return back to school. This change is a positive step forward."

And finally, Simon updated attendees on states' use of the additional flexibilities Secretary Spellings announced in May regarding special education students. Thus far this year, 42 states have applied for this additional flexibility for students with disabilities. To date, 28 have been approved.

The full text of Deputy Secretary Simon's remarks can be found at: http://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/2005/07/07132005.html