Dropout and graduation rates can fall at the same time because the dropout rate measures one year, while the graduation rate counts all four years of high school. More than 58,000 students graduated from Wisconsin high schools in 2000, the DPI said. The dropout and graduation rates fluctuated greatly from school district to school district. Some 6,441 high school students around the state dropped out last year, the DPI said.
Educators differ on how to calculate a graduation rate.
The DPI report compares the number of graduates in a year with the number of students who dropped out of that class over the past four years. Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on March 1, 2001. Journal Sentinel Inc. All rights reserved.