Undercounting dropouts is in administrators' interest because the statistic counts toward a school's ranking. The Intercultural Development Research Association, a Texas education gadfly group, said the dropout rate is many times higher than official estimates and is worsening. Over a three-year period, about 31 percent of white students quit school, as well as 49 percent of blacks and 53 percent of Hispanics, the group said. Boston College's Haney said his research confirms that the state drastically undercounts dropouts. But officials say they have cracked down on this practice, and more special-ed students are now tested with classmates.
Some educators also say the test is just too easy.
Janice Taylor, a high school math teacher in Houston, said the TAAS math test taken for graduation could be passed by many fifth-graders. Many of her 50 math seniors who passed TAAS were shocked when they did poorly on math college boards, she said. But doing well on TAAS doesn't indicate they know what they need to go to college. Three California mathematicians agreed. In a 1998 report, they said the TAAS math test needed for graduation was appropriate for the sixth grade.