Those rising graduation rates aren't looking too hot right now. A 21-year-old student at Lafayette High School in Bensonhurst was able to graduate along with half a dozen other students, even though they were all failing. One staffer told the Post, "They're giving out diplomas like it's a lemonade stand." more ›

Well here's some good news amidst a week of sex scandals and protests: city high school graduation rates have gone up in the past year. In a statement released yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg announced that the rate for the city climbed to 63% in 2009, up three percentage points from the year before. The drop-out rate has also been halved since 2005. Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein said "it’s encouraging that increasing numbers of our students are reaching this significant milestone." more ›

Consider this a warm-up to the election! Yesterday, City Comptroller Bill Thompson accused the Department of Education of inflating graduation stats. His audit noted, "The permanent records of one out of every 10 graduated students sampled did not indicate that graduation requirements had been met," (90,000 students between 2003 and 2007 were in the sample) and "Schools routinely awarded students multiple credits for passing the same course two or more times." more ›

The NY State Education Department has finally released graduation rates for 2007, and across the state, the rate is 68.5%. In NYC, the graduation rate is 52.2% (or 55.8% with summer school students--check out this NY Times article about summer school students), which means that the four-year graduation rate has been above 50% for the first time. State Education Commissioner Richard Mills said, "The bottom line is graduation rates are improving and they need to improve more." more ›