The Salina Journal from Salina, Kansas • Page 10

A8 SUNDAY. MAY 15, 2005 Great Plains SALINA JOURNAL Grads Count the ways FROM PAGE A1 Moss said that confusion over statistics is caused by a combination of bureaucracy and methodology. "Principals are supposed to report (enrollment) to us on the building report every October," he said. Graduation totals include those who had to attend summer school to pick up the remaining credits they needed. "We use what they report to us to put into two formulas we are using.

Actually, there are three," Moss said. Different definitions 'rhe state has its own definition. In addition, the National Center for Education Statistics gathers information for its Common Core of Data, and the U.S. Department of Education collects information for the No Child Left Behind act. "The feds have been criticized for failing to set a national standard for reporting," Moss said.

"All the states report it differently" And then there's methodology Class size counts are simple totals, or aggregates. While it is possible to follow a class from kindergarten through high school, there's no way to determine whether changes in size were caused by students who moved away, moved in, came from another class or simply dropped out. "Right now, we have these aggregate computations, and they don't have a whole lot of meaning," she said. A good example is the freshman class. Follow any one group of students through school and you'll find that the freshman class is always the largest.

Consider the state's Class of 2002: From 4th through 8th between 36,012 and 36,920 students 9th 39,290 10th 36,768 11th 34,300 12th Graduating 29,510 "Ninth and 10th grade are often larger, not only because you don't have your dropouts yet, but because they may not have enough credits to progress," said Sherrill Martinez, director of planning and research for the state education department. Ninth grade is the first class that students start failing in significant numbers, but there's no way of telling from the total how many are repeat students and how many moved in from elsewhere. Keeping track To do so would require what is known as a longitudinal database a method that assigns a unique number to each student and generates totals from itemized lists, not aggregates. Kansas is preparing to implement just such a system. "We're assigning numbers this summer," said Martinez.

The 10-digit numbers will be randomly generated. "They'U send in the list of kids by grade," she said. "We send numbers for the names they send in." The state will be able to determine the whereabouts of every child. "For one thing, we'll know if a student transferred to another school," Martinez said. "We'll start being able to track those things." Kansas is not alone.

"Almost every state has adopted a system now," she said. The federal government has an open invitation for someone to come up with a scheme to integrate all of them. But not everyone agrees that aggregate information is worthless. Greene argues that comparing the number of students who actually graduate with the 8th grade class size, adjusting for population changes in the intervening years, is far more accurate. "Computing dropout rates by trying to track individual students is like trying to measure how much rice you have eaten in a month by summing the weight of every grain that was cooked," he wrote in his report.

"There is measurement error when each grain is weighed and some grains are 'lost' by sticking to the side of the pot. It is much more accurate and cost-efficient just to weigh the bag at the beginning and end of the month." Reporter Duane Schrag can be reached at 822-1422 or by e-mail HAPPY HOURS now start at 5 pm. Unlimited Night Weeliend Minutes now start at a month for tlie first two months. Anytime Minutes Aftra two mDiilhs, receive MOO Anylime Minutes for )ust $50 a montli anil Uniimiieil Niglit WecienA Minnies slarting al Spm lor an aclililional SIO a mtiiilh. Includes Unlimited Night Weekend Minutes starting at Spm.

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