In your list of those blamed for low graduation rates, you are missing one item that makes the others look like red herrings. Please provide your readers with a demographic breakdown, statewide, of the numbers so they can see what the primary issue is in public education today: poverty.
Also, please make sure your readers are aware that students who don't graduate with their cohort, and need five years rather than four, are counted as dropouts. Special education students who, because of the severity of their handicapping conditions, receive an Individualized Education Program (IEP) diploma, are also counted against the local school district.
I think a very interesting piece of investigative journalism would be to find out how great an impact these two factors have on our neediest districts, and what their adjusted graduation rates would be.
Michael Lambert
Greenfield