In finance keeping two sets of books can land you in jail. In education it appears to be the norm.
Most states, if not all, have two sets of numbers for drop outs. There is the number they tell the federal government. This tends to look good. And there is the real number.
The New York Times reports:
"When it comes to high school graduation rates, Mississippi keeps two sets of books.
One team of statisticians working at the state education headquarters here recently calculated the official graduation rate at a respectable 87 percent, which Mississippi reported to Washington. But in another office piled with computer printouts, a second team of number crunchers came up with a different rate: a more sobering 63 percent."
The article places much of the blame on NCLB: "As a result, researchers say, federal figures obscure a dropout epidemic so severe that only about 70 percent of the one million American students who start ninth grade each year graduate four years later."
Each state can define their dropout rate. For example:
"New Mexico defined its rate as the percentage of enrolled 12th graders who received a diploma. That method grossly undercounts dropouts by ignoring all students who leave before the 12th grade."
My guess is the homeschooling dropout rate is close to zero, not the national public school average of around 30%.
(Hat tip: Joanne Jacobs)
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Technorati tags: homeschooling, homeschool, home school, home education, parenting, children, public school, public education, education
2 comments:
With homeschooling, one can uniquely prepare the child for whatever he or she would want to do later. It could be college or vocational. I'm thinking letting your kid work at the grocery store would count as vocational training, which is different than an aimless "dropout" sitting at home and watching TV. On paper, it might look the same to the schools, however, if someone is not sitting in a classroom.
Good point.
It is kind of amazing to me that our society has become so enamored with certificates.
For example it used to be there were many paths to becoming a lawyer. A person could attend school. A person could apprentice to another lawyer. Or a person could study on their on. To be licensed as a lawyer you had to pass the test.
Now the only want to become a lawyer is to put in your time and then take the test.
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