We need to raise the floor, not lower the ceiling.

This recent report from the Education Trust analyzed accountability for high school graduation rates under NCLB. It revealed two major problems:

 

1. State goals for raising graduation rates are far too low to spur needed improvement;
2. Gaps between student groups are allowed to persist by an accountability system that looks only at average graduation rates.

The report found several states that set a goal of graduating fewer than 60 percent of their students. Fewer than 60 percent? That's officially failing. Apparently, the NCLB law has a national focus on reading and math proficiencies, but isn't as specific when it comes to graduation rates.

The discrepencies in graduation goals state-to-state are huge and a lot of times states are setting the bar too low. For the class of 2006, Indiana had a graduation rate goal of 95% while Nevada had a goal of 50%. Washington State's goal was 68%.

The author of the report, Daria Hall, had this to say about the expectations for improvement: "(They) serve as an alarming indicator of an unwillingness to address the critical need of our high schools. We need targets that provoke action on behalf of the students, not ones that condone the status quo.”

We wholeheartedly agree.