Reaction to Diplomas Count 2008

In Diplomas Count 2008: School to College: Can P-16 Councils Ease the Transition? the EPE Research Center examined public high school graduation rates for the Class of 2005. The report found that nearly three out of every ten students fail to graduate with their class with a diploma. This amounts to one student lost from the graduation pipeline every 13 seconds of the school year. Despite the challenges facing America’s high schools, the Research Center found that the pace of improvement has been slow, with the nation’s graduation rate increasing by less than a percentage point annually between 2001 and 2005.

The EPE Research Center computes graduation rates for every state, school district, and—for the first time—Congressional district using the Cumulative Promotion Index , a method devised by EPE Research Center Director Christopher B. Swanson. This method calculates the percentage of students entering the 9th grade who will receive a standard diploma within four years.

With only one exception—Alaska— the rates calculated by the research center using the CPI are lower than the rates reported by the states themselves for the class of 2005. The majority of states use calculation methods that tend to produce inflated graduation rates because they incorporate unreliable dropout data in their formulas. States may underestimate the number of dropouts because they lack the resources or data systems needed to accurately account for all students leaving...