Comments on: Weighing In on the Graduation Rate Debate (Dan Losen) http://www.edreform.com/edspresso-shots/weighing-in-on-the-graduation-rate-debate-dan-losen/ Since 1993, the leading voice and advocate for lasting, substantive and structural education reform in the U.S. Fri, 31 May 2013 12:52:43 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 By: Joydeep Roy http://www.edreform.com/edspresso-shots/weighing-in-on-the-graduation-rate-debate-dan-losen/#comment-1449 Joydeep Roy Wed, 24 May 2006 17:09:19 +0000 http://209.183.221.124/index.php/2006/05/weighing-in-on-the-graduation-rate-debate-dan-losen/#comment-1449 I am one of the co-authors of the Economic Policy Institute book disputing the current conventional wisdom that minorities have only a 50-50 chance of graduating from high school with a regular diploma. Here is my quick response to two of Dr. Losen’s assertions. Dr. Losen writes in his comments that “wherever Mishel looks at actual student record data that he deems reliable, he too finds a dropout crisis”. While this depends on what one means by the word “crisis”, it should be pointed out that we refer to the NELS:88 survey as the gold standard, and it is indeed a longitudinal tracking of actual students over time (for a period of 12 years). The results from the NELS show that minorities have close to a 75% graduation rate. Similar high-quality longitudinal surveys also indicate that the rates have been steadily rising over the last 30 or 40 years – see Tables 3 and 4 in our book, available at <a href="http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/book_grad_rates," rel="nofollow">http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/book_grad_rates,</a> which compares NELS:88 to High School & Beyond and NLSY97 to NLSY79, and also Figures C and D - except possibly for black males during the last decade. Dr. Losen also argues that “Mishel's survey-based estimates of the national rate graduation rates are 15% to 35% higher than the actual record data he argues are accurate in Florida, Chicago and New York City, the places he looked at more directly.” It is hardly surprising that the national graduation rates for blacks is significantly higher than that for blacks in inner cities like Chicago and New York City. White males in Chicago graduate at a rate of 58% - this does not imply that the national graduation rate for whites is 58%. (Even Greene and Winters’s estimate of white male graduation rate is 74% - see <a href="http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cr_48_t1.htm.)" rel="nofollow">http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cr_48_t1.htm.)</a> Our aim in this study has been to create a better understanding of the true challenges we face and the progress we’ve made, and help lead the way to better targeted solutions for continuing to close the remaining gaps. Understanding where we are and how far we’ve come can help identify what has been working in American public education. There are significant problems to be addressed - the minority graduation rates are still low and there are significant gaps in completion between whites and Asians on the one hand and blacks and Hispanics on the other. In some inner cities like Chicago black males have only a 40% chance of completing high school with a regular diploma. However, we believe that unless we know the true picture we are unlikely to correctly address these problems. I am one of the co-authors of the Economic Policy Institute book disputing the current conventional wisdom that minorities have only a 50-50 chance of graduating from high school with a regular diploma. Here is my quick response to two of Dr. Losen’s assertions.

Dr. Losen writes in his comments that “wherever Mishel looks at actual student record data that he deems reliable, he too finds a dropout crisis”. While this depends on what one means by the word “crisis”, it should be pointed out that we refer to the NELS:88 survey as the gold standard, and it is indeed a longitudinal tracking of actual students over time (for a period of 12 years). The results from the NELS show that minorities have close to a 75% graduation rate. Similar high-quality longitudinal surveys also indicate that the rates have been steadily rising over the last 30 or 40 years – see Tables 3 and 4 in our book, available at http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/book_grad_rates, which compares NELS:88 to High School & Beyond and NLSY97 to NLSY79, and also Figures C and D – except possibly for black males during the last decade.

Dr. Losen also argues that “Mishel’s survey-based estimates of the national rate graduation rates are 15% to 35% higher than the actual record data he argues are accurate in Florida, Chicago and New York City, the places he looked at more directly.” It is hardly surprising that the national graduation rates for blacks is significantly higher than that for blacks in inner cities like Chicago and New York City. White males in Chicago graduate at a rate of 58% – this does not imply that the national graduation rate for whites is 58%. (Even Greene and Winters’s estimate of white male graduation rate is 74% – see http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cr_48_t1.htm.)

Our aim in this study has been to create a better understanding of the true challenges we face and the progress we’ve made, and help lead the way to better targeted solutions for continuing to close the remaining gaps. Understanding where we are and how far we’ve come can help identify what has been working in American public education. There are significant problems to be addressed – the minority graduation rates are still low and there are significant gaps in completion between whites and Asians on the one hand and blacks and Hispanics on the other. In some inner cities like Chicago black males have only a 40% chance of completing high school with a regular diploma. However, we believe that unless we know the true picture we are unlikely to correctly address these problems.

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