While the National Educational Goals Panel and others have reported high school graduation rates remaining essentially stable (around 86 percent) over the last decade, the graduation rate has actually fallen if students receiving GEDs are not included in those numbers, according to an article by Duncan Chaplin of the Urban Institute that appears in the new issue of Education Next. The falling graduation rate would have been a national scandal by now, Chaplin argues, had it not been disguised by a faulty measuring stick that does not distinguish between regular high school diplomas and GED certificates. Other articles in the same issue-available at www.educationnext.org-examine why teacher pay is so low, whether the ills of our education system endanger the U.S. economy, and how standards and accountability are being used as weapons in school finance lawsuits. "Tassels on the Cheap," by Duncan Chaplin, Education Next, Fall 2002.
