There is a great deal of public discussion and some confusion surrounding the terminology and statistics used in discussing our dropout and graduation rates. What is Arizona’s graduation rate? How many students dropout out of school before they graduate? How does Arizona compare nationally? Having answers to these questions is important, particularly if we hope to make progress and to be able to measure that progress. Last year CFA organized a coalition of education, business, policy and non-profit leaders to work towards greater clarity on all these issues. The group recommended the alignment of Arizona methods for calculating high school graduation with national standards and urged greater focus on graduation rates in public discussions as a positive incentive for improving educational outcomes of students. With regard to data and data collection the group noted the need for better data and data collection systems to achieve greater clarity regarding what Arizona’s true dropout and graduation rates.
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