Florida still near bottom with readjusted graduation rate calculations

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A new U.S. Department of Education report indicates that more high school students graduated on time in 2009-10 than ever before, the Huffington Post reports with h/t to Jeff Solochek.

The analysis does not use the new, uniform calculation of graduation rates that the department mandated this year, so all states could be compared to one another.

Either way, Florida continued to sit near the bottom of the heap. Under the new one, released in November, Florida ranked sixth from the bottom.

In the latest one? Florida’s 70.8 percent graduation rate came in well under the national rate of 78.2 percent, and better than only Nevada, New Mexico, Louisiana, Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi and the District of Columbia.

There’s no denying the state has vaastly improved its graduation rates over time by any measure. But there’s also no denying that it’s still a long way to the top.

Peter Schorsch is the President of Extensive Enterprises and is the publisher of some of Florida’s most influential new media websites, including SaintPetersBlog.com, FloridaPolitics.com, ContextFlorida.com, and Sunburn, the morning read of what’s hot in Florida politics. SaintPetersBlog has for three years running been ranked by the Washington Post as the best state-based blog in Florida. In addition to his publishing efforts, Peter is a political consultant to several of the state’s largest governmental affairs and public relations firms. Peter lives in St. Petersburg with his wife, Michelle, and their daughter, Ella.