How a place like John Hopkins could put a study like this out and how an organization like the Associated Press could publish such an article is beyond me. Much of the story and study contain non-factual information.

"Midway and Rockwood high schools, in Roane County, have a retention rate of 56 percent and 59 percent, respectively."

Rockwood has a graduation rate of 75% and Midway has a rate of 80%.(this is from the state) RHS will be on the state’s “target” list this year because they missed their goal by 6/10 of a percent. Remember that GED and special education students count against us - this is important to remember. Does Johns Hopkins have data that the state doesn't have? If so where did they get it?

"Two East Tennessee high schools are on the "dropout factory" list"

Seven schools on the list are from Hamilton County -- I was not aware that this county was not in east Tennessee - guess my teachers were all wrong.

"Toni H. McGriff, Roane County director of schools, and board members who represent the schools did not return calls seeking comment Monday evening."

I know of no school board members that were contacted and Dr. McGriff was contacted as she left work yesterday -- she didn't even have time to respond before this article was written.

From the Johns Hopkins study when addressing their data of ninth graders who did not graduate from the same high school they started in "some transferred, most dropped out". When a student leaves a school in Tennessee they are not tracked to see if they dropped out, transferred to another school, got a GED, or came back to school to finish. How on earth did Johns Hopkins get the data to make a statement like the one above. Did they track every student that left Midway and Rockwood? I doubt it. I suspect they just used a "national estimate of some kind". If you are going to do a statistical analysis you have to use all solid, dependable data. If you introduce subjectivity to the analysis, the whole study loses credibility.

The last statement in the article states "Utah, which has low poverty rates and fewer minorities than most states, is the only state without a dropout factory.". What is the AP implying here? Where is Jesse Jackson's response to that statement?

This article triggered media to be in Roane County all day chasing a story that was factually incorrect and a study that was greatly flawed.

Can we decrease our dropout rate? Yes, we should contine to work in that way. But to call two of our schools dropout factories is a totally false statement. If Roane County has dropout factories, then that same tag can be put on every school system in the state because our real dropout rates are no worse than any of the others.

The article contained in today’s Knox News Sentinel regarding Midway High School and Rockwood High School in Roane County allegedly based on an Associated Press article contains “statistics” that are untrue. Neither high school has drop out rates of the magnitude reported. Midway High School has consistently met the Tennessee target scores for graduation rates and has done so again this year at almost 80%. Rockwood high school has historically met the target, but is reported by the state to be .6% (6/10%) below the target for school year 2006-07 (the latest data available). The graduation rate for Rockwood High School is 75% for SY 2006-07.

All Roane County high schools work diligently with students and parents to support the goal of graduation from high school. A number of programs and options are available at each school to help students stay on track to high school graduation.

I've commented for several years that we are fudging numbers here. Actually, RCHS isn't from what I can remember but Rockwood numbers don't make sense.

You can't consistantly have 40% more students in your freshman class than your senior class and claim a 75% graduation rate.

It would take four years of "report cards" to nail this one down, but I figure it is exactly like the "Texas miracle", if you remember that one.

I have a problem. The information on enrollment by grade has been removed from the report card on the web site.

Who's hiding this?

2005-6 9th grade attendance for all Roane County schools....645

2005-6 Diplomas awarded (including Special Ed).....391

2005-6 12th grade enrollment....543...

So only 72% of Seniors graduated!

So County wide the grad rate even for Seniors was 72%

If RCHS grad rate was 88% that leaves some really low scores for the other schools. I haven't followed Midway, but I've joked about the Rockwood data for years now. I think the statement in the AP was that only 60% of entering Freshmen graduate and I believe that statement. It will be pretty easy to find out if it's true by looking at the 9th grade enrollment figures four years ago and then look at the number of diplomas issued last year.

Let's not hide from our problems...let's fix them!

Although it may not impact the percentages significantly remember students obtaining GED's and special education degrees do not count toward the graduation rate as computed by NCLB and I think that is being erroneously computed in the JH article. I’m also unsure if the JH article is accounting for the number of students who transfer to other schools (systems) albeit a mute point since most all schools experience such transitional patterns. Although that sounds defensive, it is additional information to be considered.
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Regardless, we can always do better and if we were the top school in Tennessee, we should be striving to improve. I personally think we have the strongest central office staff we have had in many years and they exhibit much enthusiasm in elevating our academic standards. These are the folks supporting the individual schools and you will see today’s efforts payoff in the near future. While this article serves as a wake up call, there are more positives going on in our schools than roughly alluded to by this article. I’m no fan of NCLB the way it stands today and unfortunately, the numbers are impacted by NCLB.