States Report about Completion of High School and Graduation Rates

It was announced by the U.S. Department of Education that in this summer the states will start reporting the rates of the high school graduates for the year 2010-2011 by a more precise and developed by the nation’s Governer in 2005. The change over to the rate reproduces efforts of the states to create consistency and transparency in manipulating the data of high school graduation and fulfills needs of a federal regulation which was established in October 2008. In the United States, education is offered by the public sector and consists of different institutions which provide higher education to the students.

The states have manipulated graduating rates by using different methods since the need of data reporting were executed under No Child Left Behind. This also creates inconsistent data from one state to another. The conversion to a regular high school graduation rate needs every state to report the number of students who will be graduating in four years with a high school diploma that will be divided among the students who entered in this four year high school previously and accounting for the transfer of the students from the schools. Besides this, the states may also choose to use an extended-year adjusted cohort, allowing the states, schools and districts to account for the students who complete their high school in more than four years.

Proper research and funding have helped the U.S. colleges and universities to become the most esteemed academic education system. The nation is said to have second largest number of higher education institution in the world.

However, the schools should keep the documentation for the students who may have already taken transfer. The states will carry on reporting graduation rates at the high school, district and state levels which includes rates for subgroups of students. The new dimension holds the schools that are held responsible for the students who drop out and also for those students who don’t obtain a regular high school diploma.

It was expected by the department that the more accurate method will result in lowering the rate of graduates and it will also reveal a more accurate manipulation of the number of U.S. students who will complete high school education. It was said by Duncan that with the help of this identical method, the states are increasing the bar of data standards.

The rate of graduates for 2010-2011 school years will be reported all through the summer and fall on a state-by-state basis. The rate of graduates are being reported by the states with the help of a new four-year adjusted cohort rate but these rates will not be used for the purpose of accountability till the school year of 2011-2012.