Ontario touts increase in graduation rates

“We have real concerns that your numbers may be less a measure of success and more a way of hiding failure.”

Last summer, Statistics Canada reported the national graduation rate was nearly 75 per cent in 2006, about the same level it was in 1999. Graduation rates were highest in the Atlantic provinces and Saskatchewan, and lowest in Alberta and the three territories.

The highest drop out rates in Canada, measuring people between 20 and 24 who don’t have a diploma, are in Quebec and the Prairie provinces. British Columbia and Newfoundland and Labrador have the lowest rate of high school dropouts.

Wynne couldn’t say what the graduation rate was for Ontario students after four years of high school because the Ministry of Education doesn’t track that number.

“I don’t have that number for you, because we think the more valid number is the kids who graduate within that five year window,” she said, noting that the rate doesn’t include people who leave school early but later get their diploma.

“In fact, far from inflating the grad rate, we’re actually being pretty true to what is done in other provinces.”

According to Education Ministry figures released Monday, the 77 per cent graduation rate in 2007-08 was equivalent to 115,500 students, and compared with a graduation rate of 68 per cent in 2003-04.

Wynne said her goal was to have 85 per cent of students graduating from high school by 2010-11.

New rules introduced in the United States last year based high school graduation rates on whether students finish with a diploma in four years. The system only counts those who take five or six years to graduate if they are still learning English or have a disability.

- The Canadian Press