The dropout rate for Massachusetts high school students in 2000-2001 stayed steady at 3.5 percent, possibly disappointing critics of the state's new high-stakes graduation exam (MCAS), who had predicted that making the test a graduation requirement would cause dropout rates to skyrocket. In Boston, the rate declined from 9.4 percent in 1999-2000 to 8.5 percent in 2000-2001. (That was the first year the test was taken by students who would have to pass it to graduate.) "State says MCAS produced no jump in dropout rate," by Michele Kurtz, The Boston Globe, August 27, 2002
