On March 4th, 2010, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction released its annual statewide Dropout Report covering the 2008-09 school year. The charts in this report show the dropout rate for Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) compared to the state as a whole, to other large school districts in North Carolina, and by federal No…

REL Southwest received a request to review the report "Avoidable Losses: High Stakes Accountability and the Dropout Crisis" to assess the soundness of the study methodology and the appropriateness of the conclusions drawn in the report. The review found that conclusions drawn in this study cannot be generalized and are significantly…

The purpose of this paper is to examine a single study participant and overall graduation rates as they relate to both the general education and special education population. As more federal requirements are defined, especially the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, along with individual state requirements, the overall graduation rate of both of…

This third edition, now published by Pine Forge Press, features original readings and article excerpts by leaders in the area of Sociology of Education. With a wide array of theoretical perspectives, a broad range of respected sources, and inclusion of both classic and contemporary studies, this comprehensive, integrated text addresses key issues…

In this article, the author discusses the discrepancy in high school dropout rates throughout the U.S. and in national studies because of different measures of the dropout rate. Many states began to use a common dropout definition developed by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Not included among the 37 states using the NCES…

Achievement testing is the centerpiece of the state accountability systems mandated by the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Accordingly, the public attention directed towards achievement scores has largely eclipsed the crucial role that graduation rates play in NCLB accountability, at least until recently. As a new body of research on…

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 requires that public elementary and secondary school systems be held accountable for achieving high levels of educational proficiency for all students. While achievement testing is the central component of state accountability systems under NCLB, these systems must include graduation rates as an academic…