A national report that criticizes states for reporting lofty high school graduation rates unfairly assumes states are trying to be dishonest, school officials in North Dakota and Minnesota said.
"They make it sound like we're all trying to hide things, but we're not," said Alice Seagren, Minnesota's education commissioner. "We're very aware some of our graduation rates are abysmal."
Minnesota and North Dakota are among 36 states that say more than 80 percent of their high school students graduate on time, state figures provided to the U.S. Department of Education show.
An independent analysis by The Education Trust, an advocacy organization for poor and minority students, shows 70 percent of students don't finish on time, if at all.
The report estimates North Dakota's graduation rate should be closer to 80 percent than the 91 percent reported; Minnesota's should be 79 percent instead of 88 percent.
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It found larger discrepancies between estimates and reported graduation rates for students who are minorities, poor, have disabilities or aren't proficient in English.
For example, Minnesota reports 58 percent of American Indian students graduate with their peers, while the report estimates 36 percent graduate on time.
Numbers across the nation show "rampant dishonesty," said Kati Haycock, director of The Education Trust. The agency reviewed the 2002-03 graduation rates that states had to provide this year.
Under federal law, reading and math tests are the main way states must judge student progress, but high schools also count graduation rates. States are generally allowed to calculate the rates however they want, making comparisons across states fairly meaningless.
Educators in Minnesota and North Dakota said states often have trouble tracking students who leave school, a fact noted by The Education Trust's report.
Wayne Sanstead, superintendent of North Dakota schools, said the state counts on districts to report students who drop out between ninth and 12th grades.
The state doesn't track individual students.
"When a student transfers in North Dakota, we don't always know if he or she goes to another school," he said. "We rely on schools' good faith estimates of who is graduating on time."
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Within the next year, he'd like the state to introduce an integrated information system that will make it easier for schools and districts to track individual students.
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"Getting an honest picture of who graduates should be a priority of everyone," he said.
Minnesota officials stood by their data, saying the Education Trust report gives estimates while they track actual numbers.
Minnesota assigns each student an identification number, which makes it easier to track kids if they move to another school in the state. The system is a bit slow, but accurate by the time it closes at the end of the year, said Cathy Wagner, who works for the information technology department.
"We're not trying to make it look better than it is," Seagren said.
Referring to discrepancies in graduation rates among some minority groups, she said: "whether it's 30 percent or 50 percent, it's bad."
The Associated Press contributed to this report. Readers can reach Forum reporter Erin Hemme Froslie at (701) 241-5534
