Oregon Public Broadcasting

Oregon’s dropout rate jumped under a new tracking system state education officials have started using. Rob Manning reports.

Oregon reported a record-low dropout rate this spring, of 3.7 percent. But under a new system that the U.S. Department of Education will require Oregon to use by 2011, the dropout rate shot up to nine percent.

That doesn’t include another 14 percent of students who finished with a modified, alternative, or equivalency diploma, or were at a detention facility, where a standard diploma isn’t an option.

In the end, the new, narrower definition of a high school graduate pulled Oregon’s graduation rate down 16 points to 68 percent.

The new system tracks students over their four-year high school career. State officials say they're still working the kinks out.

For instance, Oregon offiicals say they want to work with school districts on verifying the fate of more than 8000 students that educators assumed didn't drop out, but left the state, or switched to private schools.