Graduation-Rate Data Spur Questions About School Quality

By Millicent Lawton

A federal report that finds black young adults, for the first time, are completing high school at the same rate as whites might lead some to conclude that educational parity had been achieved.

Not so, education experts said last week. While such findings are welcome, they said, the results don't necessarily mean that schools are doing a better job educating minority students.

The new data, released this month in a report by the U.S. Bureau of the Census, represent a "mixed message," because the quality of education may be considerably inferior at a majority-black school than at a majority-white one, said Reginald Wilson, a senior scholar at the American Council...