If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck--well, you get the picture (pun intended).That was my reaction to Thursday's P & C article that challenged how readers should think about CCSD's having the lowest on-time graduation rate in the Lowcountry [What Do Graduation Rates Mean?]. 'Splain away, but the statistic remains valid, or as CCSD Board member David Engelman so succinctly puts it, "he's heard the excuses as to why the district's rate is what it is, but that doesn't justify it. Even if the school district were allowed to count more students in its graduation rate, it wouldn't affect its ranking because other districts also would be able to count those students, he said. Anyone can manipulate statistics to frame a situation in a favorable light.''
Forget the 61 % overall for a moment. Please explain why the on-time graduation rate at North Charleston High School is 35 % while the comparable statistic at Lincoln High School is 81 %.
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Is this why we pay Mr. Smalley and all the others on the payroll in CCSD's PR department? They would make happy news out of everything, even bad news. I think some would call this trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.
I would also like to know why such a difference exists in the graduation rates at NCHS and LHS. Either one school is remarkably successful while the other is not or the schools are using two very different sets of measurements. Maybe Mr. Smalley's spin is an indication that some schools are already using reporting standards that would make Lewis Carroll blush.
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