Knowing facts helps schools

By The Daily Progress

Published: October 12, 2008

Second of two parts.

The fact that we now know our area high schools’ graduation rates is only part of the story.

Underlying that is another point of significance: that we can know the rates.

Until recently, no one knew exactly how many students were graduating or dropping out.

Sure, schools could tell us how many students graduated on any given June day. But did those students graduate with their class? Or did they take more than four years to finish?

What about students who didn’t graduate? Did they drop out? Or just move to a different school?

For decades, the answers to these questions were just estimates — refined estimates in some cases, but still estimates.

Better tracking methods became critical when Virginia implemented the Standards of Learning some 10 years ago and, later, when the federal government enacted No Child Left Behind.

Better measurements became an important way for schools to judge their own success rates and to benchmark themselves against other schools and the new standards.

Several years ago, Virginia began tracking students through a new statistically accurate system. The first complete set of data, representing students who entered ninth grade in 2004, are now being analyzed.

Graduation rates were the first statistics to emerge; dropout rates will be announced early next year.

Officials also plan to track students who graduate in five years rather than four, as they understand perfectly well that some students — such as those who speak English as a second language — have legitimate reasons for not graduating in the standard four years.

The system also quantifies how many students obtained advanced degrees, standard diplomas or other certified diplomas.

Virginia is among a handful of states on the leading edge of this measurement initiative.

The system will strengthen Virginia’s efforts to improve secondary education by creating accurate benchmarks for comparisons.

It was an initiative Virginia could have shirked with the excuse that good estimates were good enough.

But “good” isn’t necessarily good enough. We may not be able to achieve perfection, but we should strive for excellence.