The Problem With Four-Year Graduation Rates

Last month, the Washington Post wrote an article called “Why Alabama and West Virginia Suddenly Have Amazing High School Graduation Rates.” Immediately, the title of the article should raise some eyebrows–but the Post took a rather uncritical view of West Virginia and Alabama’s graduation rates.

The article starts with the assumption that graduating from high school is an inherent good: that a higher graduation rate means that the quality of schools has increased. What is more likely the case, however, is that schools, administrators, and teachers — under pressure from politicians — have pushed more students through the system without actually having demonstrated competence.

Indeed, at each of the three schools I have worked, come May, there is an immense amount of pressure on teachers to make sure that every student passes — which might mean allowing students to turn in work that is 6 months late, curving assignments heavily, or dropping assignments altogether. Oftentimes, this is not necessarily to the student’s benefit — they get pushed onto the next grade without having learned foundational skills, and the students’ struggles get passed on to the next teacher.

The article continues to look at whether or not Alabama cooked the books with astonishing credulity, concluding that “it wasn’t smoke and mirrors.” For instance, the article claims that Alabama’s “college and career readiness” measures also increased while graduation rates increased–without noting that a student can be deemed…