A study released in July by an educational research group revealed that Tennessee ranks among the lowest in high school graduation rates.
The report issued by the Southern Regional Education Board shows that three independent research institutes — the Manhattan Institute, Postsecondary Opportunity and the Urban Institute — place Tennessee’s graduation rates between 55 percent and 58 percent, lower than the national average of 60 percent and significantly lower than the state-reported 72-percent rate.
Joan Lord, director of educational policies for the SREB, spoke about the rates for SREB states.
“When we looked at our states, some states declined more than others,” she said. “Tennessee declined fairly significantly from rates released in previous studies.”
Other states included in the SREB whose figures are similarly lower than 60 percent include Florida, Mississippi, Georgia and South Carolina.
States who performed best in the study, reporting 70 percent or more by all measurements, are Virginia, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Maryland and Arkansas.
Lord noted, however, that national graduation rates have generally experienced a decline.
The SREB study reports that 75 percent of students graduated within the 4-year time frame in 1982, but had declined by seven percentage points by 2002 to a rate of 68 percent.
The Manhattan Institute reports that the national rate declined by 2 percentage points between 1992 and 2002, while SREB states declined an average of 5 percent. Tennessee was again found to be among the lowest scoring states, reporting a 13 percentage point drop for that ten-year period.
However, Kim Karesh, communications director for the Tennessee Board of Education, argues that Tennessee’s graduation rates differ from those presented in the SREB report.
“This is a complex issue,” she said. “We do not believe our graduation rate is under 60 percent. We calculate it at around 76 percent.”
Each research institute uses different formulae to calculate their results, and, Karesh said, they fail to take into account a number of factors. The formula Tennessee uses is approved by the National Center for Education Statistics.
Despite the differences in calculating methodologies, Karesh said that there is still room for improvement.
“The fact of the matter is that [the figure] is too low.”
Both Lord and Karesh stressed the importance of solid educational backgrounds for students before they ever enter high school.
“Gov. Bredesen’s Pre-K initiative keeps students from falling through the cracks in the first place,” Karesh said.
Lord spoke about the need for middle grades to provide a strong fundamental basis.
“SREB specialists believe that the middle grades are getting away from their focus,” instead experimenting with different teaching methodologies than building upon traditional techniques.
Middle grades, she said, “is the place to do some preliminary high school work,” which is beginning to include teaching foreign languages and basic algebra earlier and earlier rather than waiting until high school to begin such studies.
Another way to improve graduation rates, both experts agree, is to introduce far-sighted programs early in high school to help students stay focused on their future goals.
“One issue is that early experiences in high school need to have more of a career focus to keep them engaged in high school,” Lord said.
Karesh spoke about Tennessee programs that she said have been implemented to do just this.
“There are several things going on,” she said. Karesh pointed to a program to develop small learning communities for high schools which, she said, “are about breaking up high schools so you have smaller schools within the schools.”
Despite their differences over the actual figures for graduation rates, both Lord and Karesh stressed the importance of early education.
“It’s important to reach kids at an early age. There needs to be a concerted effort all the way through,” Lord said.
