Kansas task force debates use of graduation rate to gauge student success
Sen. Renee Erickson, second from left, a Wichita Republican who leads the Kansas Legislature's school finance task force, said Kansas should retain use of high school graduation statistics to measure student achievement despite criticism it was unclear earning the diploma meant students were prepared for college or the workforce. (Kansas Reflector screen capture from Legislature's YouTube channel)
TOPEKA — Disagreement exists on the Kansas Legislature's task force reworking the state's public school finance formula about the importance of high school graduation rate as a measure of student success.
A member of the task force pointed to alleged manipulation of student records at Wichita Southeast High School as evidence of why a district's annual graduation rate shouldn't be viewed as a significant metric, while others defended graduation rates as an evaluation tool when determining whether districts prepared students for the workplace or college.
Rep. Kristey Williams, an Augusta Republican, said the Wichita school district had touted a 5.1 percentage point surge in its graduation rate in 2024 to 84.3%. Wichita Southeast's graduation rate climbed 12.5 percentage points in 2024 to a record-high 86.3%.
Southeast's principal was replaced last week amid reports of suspected grade fixing that may have been associated with helping students meet graduation requirements.
'I wouldn't use graduation rates,' said Williams, who didn't see a meaningful correlation between graduation rate and student success. 'If we want to baby sit, that's one thing. If we want to have a safe place for them, that's one thing. But that doesn't mean you're learning anything.'
Frank Harwood, a deputy commissioner of the Kansas State Department of Education, said one potential incident of administrative misconduct shouldn't justify dismissal of graduation rates as a means of measuring school districts.
'When you look at any industry, including the Legislature, there are bad actors,' he said. 'It doesn't mean you should throw out that metric all together. I'm not saying graduation rate is the best indicator, but I think it is an indicator that we can't just ignore.'
The Kansas State Board of Education made elevating the state's high school graduation rate a feature in its 'Kansans Can' agenda and in terms of school district accreditation. The state board's graduation-rate goal was set at 95%.
Kansas' adjusted cohort graduation rate, which tracked student graduation within four years and took into account transfers, has ranged from 86% to 89% during the past decade.
In 2022-2023, more than 90 of the state's 287 school districts graduated 100% of students. Twenty school districts had graduation rates below 80% during that academic year. The Wichita district's graduation rate was at 79.2% during that period, while the Kansas City, Kansas, district came in at 73.4%.
Sen. Renee Erickson, a Wichita Republican serving as chairwoman of the Legislature's school-finance task force, said Kansas should continue to include graduation rate in a set of evaluation metrics. She said the state needed to develop a definition of what a high school diploma revealed about students.
Erickson said employers had reported a high school diploma didn't guarantee a quality worker. University or college officials indicated high school graduates didn't necessarily have skills to succeed in higher education, she said.
'I have post-secondary folks in my office frequently and they're saying, 'They're not prepared for our level of work,'' the senator said. 'I'm not blaming. I'm just telling you, if you can't acknowledge that, we've got a problem.'
Task force member Pat Pettey, a Democratic senator from Kansas City, Kansas, said it would be folly to drop the graduation rate as an indicator of a school district's ability to prepare students for the future.
'I still am a strong supporter of graduation rates because having a high school diploma is a key to opening the first door to get a job. I don't believe it is the key, but if they don't have that they're not on a trajectory to be economically successful,' Pettey said.
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