Texas Tribune 11/4/09
Dropout problem drags Texas down
(snip)
The story of Reyes’ six children — that a third of them dropped out — plays out all across Texas, many experts believe. The U.S. Department of Education puts the Texas graduation rate at 71.9 percent — ranking the state 36th nationally. That would put the dropout population for each year’s graduating class at roughly 130,000 — or about the size of McAllen. Another estimate, using a formula called the Cumulative Promotion Index, indicates only 64.5 percent graduate in four years.

The Texas Education Agency has come under fire for releasing much lower estimates. The number TEA most commonly cites, a “completion rate,” is 88 percent.

“No one outside of that building believes that 12 percent number,” says Bill Hammond, president of the Texas Association of Business, referring to the inverse of the state rate.

(snip)

Rep. Scott Hochberg, D-Houston, who represents an impoverished southwest Houston district where the dropout problem is both stratospheric and impossible to quantify, has watched several rounds of dropout debates with dismay.

“I represent a district that has 80 percent renters, 70 percent of people speaking a first language other than English, where there’s a high school with 42 languages and 40 percent turnover of the student body every year — now tell me how you plan to calculate the dropout rate,” he said. “I will stipulate that it’s too big — let’s just start there. I wish we fought over solutions as much as we fight over the number.”