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No Comments [ Add Comment ]Graduate, they said
The peopl
e in Utah's educational establishment continue to take that whole when-life-hands-you-lemons-make-lemonade advice seriously.
Education Week released a national survey recently ranking the states according to high school graduation rates, and Utah was the clear winner: 83.8 percent of Utah students graduate high school, compared to a national average of 69.9 percent.
That's great news, and pretty much pegs out on the irony meter, too: Utah spends less money per student that any other state in the nation.
Next time you see a teacher, tell 'em thanks.
Looking at individual school district numbers -- they're from 2004, the most recent year available -- does take a bit of the shine off the overall numbers, though. As you might expect, it's generally true among Top of Utah districts that the larger the number of children served in each district, the lower the graduation rate. As reporter Amy K. Stewart noted in her news story last week:
* Morgan School District had 1,967 students in 2004, and its graduation rate was 98.8 percent.
* The Box Elder School District enrollment was 10,342, and its graduation rate was 93.7 percent.
* The Weber School District had 27,389 students enrolled, and its graduation rate was 89.7.
* The Davis School District had 59,506 students enrolled in 2004, and its graduation rate was 80 percent.
The only Top of Utah district that bucked that trend was Ogden, which had 12,538 students in 2004; its graduation rate was 61.9 percent -- 8 percent lower than the national average, but still higher than, for example, San Diego, Calif., Albuquerque, N.M., and Austin, Texas. But among the nation's 50 largest districts, Utah's Jordan School District (almost 80,000 students) was tops, with a graduation rate of 88.5 percent; another Salt Lake County district, Granite (68,000 students), was seventh, with an 80.1 percent rate.
It's also true that there is a distinct difference in Utah graduation rates when it comes to students' races. Utah graduates 88.6 percent of its white students, but rates are lower for blacks (65.5 percent), Hispanics (61.7 percent), Asians (79.4 percent) and American Indians (62 percent). That deserves immediate action from administrators on the state and local levels -- we have to find out why those children are being under-served and develop programs to help them pull even with white students.
Those caveats aside, however, the news about graduation rates in Utah is encouraging.
A well-educated and motivated population will continue to be the state's ticket to social and economic prosperity.
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