Idaho’s high school graduation rate is better than all but nine states with 84 percent of students graduating on time. That’s according to a report out this week from the U.S. Department of Education. But the annual report has a multi-year lag. This one looks at the 2009-2010 school year.
It also uses a method of counting grads and dropouts that even the authors consider antiquated. It compares the number of diplomas a state hands out with the number of students registered for 9th grade four years earlier.
Over the past several years many states have implemented computer systems that allow them to track individual students more accurately.
Idaho has had such a system for a couple of years but it won’t be able to report graduation rates with it until next year. That’s when the first class of freshmen in the data base graduate. A spokesperson for Idaho’s Department of Education says the state’s graduation rate will likely drop when the more accurate counting system goes into place.