by Drew Tewksbury

Graduation
iStockphoto.com

Many states keep two sets of records when it comes to reporting graduation rates to the federal government: real and fake.

The New York Times reports that many states send inflated graduation rates to the federal government.

Mississippi takes the cake. They reported an 87 percent graduation rate, while the federal Department of Education estimates their graduation rate to be 63.3 percent.

In a related story:

The Bush administration is easing the "No Child Left Behind" law, saying that the initiative is labeling too many schools as failing.

In six years it has identified 9,000 of the nation's 90,000 public schools as "in need of improvement," the law's term for failing, and experts predict that those numbers could multiply in coming years.

The rising number of failing schools is overwhelming states' capacities to turn them around, and states have complained that the law imposes the same set of sanctions, which can escalate to a school's closing, on the nation's worst schools as well as those doing a reasonable job despite some problems.

To the parents: How are your children's schools? Have you noticed any improvements because of the "No Child Left Behind" law?

To the teachers: How has "No Child Left Behind" affected your school? Is the law bringing your school up to speed, or is it creating an unneeded burden?