Rules Mandate Uniform Graduation Rates

Spellings issues NCLB regulations with pieces from legislative agenda.

The Bush administration put its final stamp on the No Child Left Behind Act last week, leaving the next president’s team the task of enforcing a wide-ranging set of new regulations governing the law.

The rules will require states to adopt the same method of calculating high school graduation rates; mandate that school districts take additional steps to ensure students in low-performing schools know they’re eligible to transfer to other public schools or enroll in free tutoring; and direct states to make public information comparing student achievement on their own tests against national-assessment scores.

The regulations “will help us build on the progress of No Child Left Behind and set the table until Congress can act on this legislation,” Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings said in announcing the rules Oct. 28 at Columbia High School in Columbia, S.C. Her speech was broadcast on the Web by...