EDITORIAL: Report card shows gains
Advocate (excerpt)

If changing the yardstick does make the number look better, there’s still good news that fewer Louisiana students are dropping out of high school. The 28 percent drop in the number of students leaving high school is from the 2009-10 school year. That number is the best in a decade and thus very good news.

The reason the number is that high, though, includes a change in how dropouts are measured. Some students who previously might have been classified as dropouts are no longer counted if they attend adult education centers.

Still, even without the adjustment, the dropout rate would have declined by 16 percent — a good number. Further, those who are in adult education at least have a shot at the diploma that makes such a difference in a young person’s future.