Oregon Public Broadcasting

An average of one in three Oregon 9th graders fails to graduate with a standard diploma four years later. Rob Manning reports on figures just released by state education officials.

Oregon's graduation rates look a lot worse this year than in past years – because of a new counting method, soon to be required by the federal government. It tracks individual students for four years to see whether they graduate.

Oregon is trying out the new "cohort rate" this year, a year before it's required. It shows Oregon graduated 66 percent of its 2005 freshmen, four years later in 2009.

The new method doesn't count students as graduates if they get modified diplomas like GEDs. Some districts are already criticizing the new method for that reason.

Some school districts are doing far better than the state average. Lake Oswego has an 89 percent graduation rate. In West Linn-Wilsonville, it's 85 percent.

But the four-year graduation rate is only 53 percent at Portland Public Schools. In Redmond, it's 47 percent. State officials say that alternative or fifth-year programs may have pushed those rates down.