[LadyShea]

As we have already discussed, Texas feels free to rewrite history to reflect their religious and political views, and get it taught to all public school kids in their state (and possibly more states).

Now, it seems that there is a widespread practice of designating drop outs and push outs as homeschool withdrawals.*

More than 22,620 Texas secondary students who stopped showing up for class in 2008 were excluded from the state's dropout statistics because administrators said they were being home-schooled, according to Texas Education Agency figures.

While home-schooling's popularity has increased, the rate of growth concentrated in Texas' high school population is off the chart: It's nearly tripled in the last decade, including a 24 percent jump in a single year.

"That's just ridiculous," said Brian D. Ray, founder of the National Home Education Research Institute. "It doesn't sound very believable."

Oh, and just for Texas fun on a national scale, similar book cooking regarding drop out rates and test scores very well may have been the genesis of NCLB (This is the first I have seen regarding this, so sorry if it's old information to you)

He (Pres. Bush) put educators on notice: there will be stiff penalties on any school that doesn't improve student performance.

He modeled his program on what's been called "the Houston miracle," the school system in Texas whose superintendent is now his Secretary of Education.


In February of this year, local TV station KHOU broke the story of Sharpstown High. It wasn't long before state officials stepped in to investigate. It turned out that the problem wasn't just Sharpstown High. Almost all of the schools the state looked at had reported false dropout rates. Westside High School has 2300 students but, like Sharpstown, it claimed it didn't have any dropouts. Yates High School said it only had 26 dropouts. In reality, it had 373 — more than a quarter of its 1400 students.

Here's how these Houston schools were cooking the books. Texas investigators say school officials were simply coming up with reasons — like transferring or getting a GED — why students shouldn't be listed as dropouts. Imagine Jerroll Tyler's surprise when he found out Sharpstown officials claimed he transferred to another school he'd never even heard of — a claim he believes they knew wasn't true.

State officials acknowledge that in recent years, as standardized tests have become more difficult, there have been reports of school officials encouraging students to drop out rather than drag down test scores. The new rules are meant to deter this.

Students who quit high school, can't pass the TAKS or opt for a GED will all be considered dropouts, or "non-completers." To earn an "acceptable" rating from the state, 75 percent of a district's or a school's students must complete high school.

Those Taking GED to Count As Dropouts: The New Policy is Likely to Increase the Official Dropout Rate and Could Result in Lower Rankings for Many Schools in Texas - Education News - redOrbit

OlsonOnline: The whistle blower from Houston

The 'Texas Miracle' - 60 Minutes - CBS News

Everything grows big in Texas, including hubris.

*ETA: Looks like they started counting GED takers as dropouts in 2006, so they switched the false designation to homeschool is my bet.