Scores May Overshadow Grad Rates as Priority, Report Says

Tennessee’s waiver from the federal No Child Left Behind law does not hold the state as accountable for high-school graduation rates as it should. So says a report out today from the Washington-based Alliance for Excellent Education, which analyzed waivers from thirty-four states.

The report gives Tennessee some credit for singling out high schools for intervention, if graduation rates lag among say poor students, or minorities.

But the report also says Tennessee’s new waiver puts too much emphasis on test scores, and not enough on grad rates. It could give districts a perverse incentive, to get better test scores by letting bad students drop out.