Dreaming of Cloud

Dropout rate drops jaws: S.J. ranks 8th-best in U.S.

Transit Elsewhere: London Bus Crash Tower Bridge Road: Eye Witness …
London Bus Crash Tower Bridge Road: Eye Witness Accounts Of Collision With Tree Sky NewsHome. Eye witnesses have spoken of the moment a bus crashed into a …

Dropout rate drops jaws: S.J. ranks 8th-best in U.S.

suspicious data doesn’t keep local districts from celebratingby sharon noguchimercury newsarticle launched: 04/02/2008 01:41:13 am pdtwhile some bigwigs in the nation’s head on tuesday lauded san jose for having the eighth-lowest dropout censure among 50 american big cities, the reaction locally was . . . huh?

San Jose’s “urban” graduation rate was 80.9 percent, compared with a metropolitan average of 58 percent, the high-profile group America’s Promise Alliance, founded by former Secretary of State Colin Powell and headed by his wife, announced at a news conference.

Tower Bridge bus crash: one person killed, many injured - Telegraph
One person has been killed and 18 injured in a bus crash near Tower Bridge in central London.

But a dissection of the figures reveals why educators here were taken by surprise.

The national group labeled the San Jose Unified School District - which cuts a banana-shaped swath from downtown San Jose south into the Almaden Valley - as an “urban district” serving a large metropolitan area.

Tower Bridge bus crash: one killed, 18 injured - Telegraph
A woman has been killed and 18 people injured after a double decker bus crashed into a tree near Tower Bridge in central London.

True, but parts of the district have more in common with, say, Fremont than Oakland.

Compared only with “urban” districts, rather than cities as a whole, San Jose Unified ranked second, with a 77 percent graduation rate, after the Mesa Unified School District in Arizona.

“It’s a number we’ve never seen,” said San Jose Unified spokeswoman Karen Fuqua, who was sent scurrying Tuesday morning to see if the honor was for real.

Woman killed as London bus hits tree - Yahoo! News
LONDON (AFP) - A woman was killed and 18 people were injured when a doubledecker bus crashed into a tree near Tower Bridge in central London on Tuesday, …

It was, but maybe not so meaningful.

America’s Promise Alliance, it turns out, based its survey on data from the 2003-04 school year - a year before the California high-school exit exam kicked in. That test, which students must pass to graduate, lowered the state’s

graduation rate from 71 percent to 67 percent, according to keric ashley, the state concern of education’s observations chief.

Besides, dropout rates are notoriously difficult to estimate - and impossible to calculate without the ability to track the whereabouts of all students. California won’t have such a system until 2009.

For now, under an inexact system, the state puts its 2004-05 graduation rate at 83.3 percent. Using that method, San Jose Unified had a 91 percent graduation rate and East Side Union, with 11 comprehensive high schools and a host of smaller high schools, 75.3 percent for the same year. Graduation rates for 2006-07 are expected to be released later this month.

America’s Promise, meanwhile, stands by its numbers.

And that’s OK with No. 2-ranked San Jose Unified.

“Are we pleased to be ranked up there? You bet ya,” Fuqua said. “It’s not April Fools’.”

One killed in bus crash near London landmark Tower Bridge, 19 …
One killed in bus crash near London landmark Tower Bridge, 19 injured.

Related posts: Continental merger, Milan scudetti, Target store hours easter, Premium outlets, 97.1 fm

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 at 2:45 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.