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The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

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Wisconsin claims highest high school graduation rate in country

Wisconsin’s high school graduation rate of more than 90 percent is the highest in the nation, according to a study released Monday. 

Building a Grad Nation, a national program dedicated to ending the high school dropout epidemic, released a report showing that Wisconsin had a high school graduation rate of 90.7 percent in 2009. This was up 5.9 percent from 2002. Wisconsin is the first state to reach the program’s goal of 90 percent.

John Johnson, spokesperson for Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, said he believes reaching the program’s goal is a great achievement but not an endpoint for the state.

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“State Superintendent [Tony] Evers has focused the work of our state and schools on ensuring every child is a graduate prepared for college and the workplace,” Johnson said. “Reducing our number of students dropping out of school is key to raising our graduation rates and closing gaps.”

Johnson said Evers intends to continue and expand the focus in improving graduation rates through state and district.

Spokesperson for Alliance for Excellent Education Jason Amos said he believes Wisconsin did the right thing when it addressed “problem high schools,” which are defined as having a graduation rate of 60 percent or less.

“A lot of factors come into play,” Amos said. “Wisconsin focused on the problem high schools and lost seven of them between 2002 and 2010.”

Overall, the nation closed 435 of these schools and transferred 789,612 students to successful schools. Wisconsin alone moved 7,893 of these students.

The study found that overall, the national graduation rate went from 72 percent to 75.5 percent between 2002 and 2009.

“This shows a lot of progress, but more needs to be done,” Amos said. “Today, you cannot get a good job without a high school diploma. Sixty percent of jobs require education after high school. Twenty-five percent of the nation’s students not graduating really speaks volumes.”

Amos believes that there is still a lot of work to be done if the goal of national graduation rates reaching 90 percent by 2020 is going to be obtained.

He suggested adding more focus to problem schools and pushing educators to watch for individual warning signs of students on the path to dropping out. He said employees should then pay special attention to those students. 

University of Wisconsin professor and Director of Wisconsin Center for Education Research Adam Gamoran is proud that Wisconsin has the highest graduation rate in the country but believes the state still needs to scrutinize the data and look for ways to improve even more.

“The real story is about inequality of race and ethnicity,” Gamoran said. “Wisconsin has a relatively advantaged population and a small minority population. That is why our graduation rate is so high.”

Gamoran added that inequality exists because of resources. He said turning around low performing schools can be accomplished first by bringing in resources to identify challenges and then bringing in new approaches to address those challenges.

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