Those Pliable Statistics
Mark Twain said, “Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable.” That seems to explain how states report high school graduation rates, according to a report in today’s New York Times, which was headlined: “States’ Data Obscure How Few Finish High School.” It begins:
“When it comes to high school graduation rates, Mississippi keeps two sets of books.
“One team of statisticians working at the state education headquarters here recently calculated the official graduation rate at a respectable 87 percent, which Mississippi reported to Washington. But in another office piled with computer printouts, a second team of number crunchers came up with a different rate: a more sobering 63 percent.”
But it’s not just Mississippi. California and Delaware were among nine states cited in the newspaper for cooking their graduation statistics; the paper wrote:
“After several research groups questioned graduation rates, the federal Department of Education in 2005 published an estimated rate for each state, to identify those that were reporting least accurately. The figures suggested that nine states had overstated their graduation rates by 10 to 22 percentage points.”
Thankfully, Virginia is not listed in the Times’ story. Nevertheless, it’s worth keeping in mind the next time the political elite try to bamboozle taxpayers with statistics.