(From The Washington Examiner, June 11, 2010)
By LEAH FABEL
Public schools in Montgomery and Fairfax counties led the nation’s 50 largest districts in a recent estimate of graduation rates, even as just over 80 percent of students earned a diploma.
Montgomery topped the 50 largest school systems with 83.1 percent of students graduating in 2007, the most recent year for which national data is available. Fairfax earned a close second with 82.5 percent.
“We’re very excited to be number one,” said Montgomery schools spokesman Dana Tofig. The county enjoyed a slight upward trend in graduation rates over five years, according to the analysis completed by Education Week magazine.
D.C. and Prince George’s public schools both graduated just under 60 percent of students, landing them near 30th place, according to the estimate. Anne Arundel County earned seventh place with just over 75 percent, and Prince William schools landed in 15th place with about 66 percent graduating.
Nationwide, 68.8 percent of students graduated in 2007, barely two out of three.
The rates are deceptive, as there are several accepted ways to measure what percentage of students graduate, and what percentage drop out. A study like Education Week’s is most useful as a tool for national comparisons otherwise impossible to obtain because of varied datakeeping.
Virginia districts have the most accurate graduation measure in the D.C. region — a “cohort rate” that follows each individual student as he or she goes through school. Using that measure, 90.4 percent of Fairfax students graduated in 2009, down slightly from 91.2 percent in 2008, according to the Virginia Department of Education.
In Montgomery County, state-level data shows that 87.4 percent of students graduated in 2009, down from 89 percent in 2008. Maryland will begin using cohort data, as in Virginia, in 2011.
Measurement differences aside, many analysts look at the rates — even those leading the nation — and see an abysmal failure of the public education system.
“These rates are not new, but we’ve been lulled into accepting them,” said Joe Williams, executive director of Democrats for Education Reform based in New York City.
“The fact that we have to pat ourselves on the back when we’re getting three-quarters of our kids through high school — that’s pretty appalling,” he said.