Official “dropout” statistics neither accurately count nor report the number of students who do not graduate from high school. Read the Associated Press article on "dropout factories," the almost 2,000 high schools identified by Johns Hopkins University researchers that lose more than 40 percent of their students between 9th and 12th grades.

Alliance for Excellent Education President Bob Wise appeared on NPR’s The Diane Rehm Show to talk about dropout factories. Listen to archived audio of the program.

While not a graduation rate, a school’s “promoting power” is a good indicator of how well schools are educating their students. See how high schools across the country perform by going to the Promoting Power database. High schools with promoting power less than 60 percent are considered dropout factories. To learn more about the confusing ways that graduation rates are calculated, read the Alliance’s fact sheets on Understanding Graduation Rates.