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Friday, March 17, 2006
Dropout Crisis Exaggerated?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A recent op-ed piece in Education Week caught my eye. The author says the dropout crisis is exaggerated. “The new conventional wisdom seems to have exaggerated the African-American dropout rate by a remarkable amount - doubling it from 25 percent to 50 percent.” Lawrence Mishel heads a group called the Economic Policy Institute and a similar version of his piece is online here.
The organization’s Web site says it is a nonpartisan think tank. You can judge for yourself.
Mishel takes those of us to task who simply subtract the number of graduating seniors from the ninth grade class three years earlier and assume everybody else quit. Economists frown on this method - understandably, I don’t like it either - and prefer census data. Education researchers dismiss this information saying people lie on census surveys about their education background, the author says.
I don’t think anyone believes the often-quoted Georgia graduation rate of 65 percent in 2004 is based on the soundest data. (It does take into account where a student goes after leaving so schools aren’t penalized for transfers and other situations where the child not quit school altogether.) But the dropout rates reported by schools are often ridiculously low - 6 or 7 percent. What exactly happens to some kids who stop coming to school is unknown. They slip away without notice.
The author does not say the dropout rate isn’t a problem, just that it has improved nationally over time and is not as dire as is often portrayed.
Thoughts?
