WASHINGTON, June 24 (UPI) -- The Education Trust criticized how some states calculate high school graduation rates and the U.S. government for not demanding honest graduation rates.
"Some states rely on ludicrous definitions of graduation rates. Others make little effort to accurately account for students who drop out of school," said the report "Getting Honest About Grad Rates: How States Play the Numbers and Students Lose," released Friday.
"And others still provide no data at all. The final result: Extremely unreliable graduation-rate information that erodes public confidence in schools and their leadership and threatens to undermine the important work of high school reform."
For example, New Mexico, which reported a graduation rate of almost 90 percent, however, this number only reflects high school seniors -- it does not include the percentage of dropouts 9th, 10th, and 11th grades.
Three states and the District of Columbia did not report high school graduation rates and 29 states did not provide data for students with disabilities.
