MichiganRadio

Report: State Graduation Rate Slides Slightly; Detroit's Drops DEARBORN, MI (Michigan Radio) - A new study says Michigan's average high school graduation rate fell slightly between 2005 and 2006. The report was put together by the research arm of Education Week. It says close to 70 percent of students in the class of 2006 graduated in four years.

But the statistics were particularly bleak in Detroit - where the graduation rate was just 27 percent.

Steve Wasko is a spokesman for Detroit Public Schools. He says the district is restructuring 18 of its high schools this summer in an effort to boost student achievement, and improve graduation rates.

"And that could be reopening that school as a charter school; replacing all or most of the relevant school staff; contracting with a private management operator to operate the school; allowing the state to take over the school; or any other means of major restructuring," he said.

Wasko says the district's state-appointed financial manager also plans to hold hearings this summer on truancy issues. Wasko says principals have been asked to submit names of chronically truant students so that their parents can be visited this summer.

Contact Sarah Hulett at sarahhu&umich.edu © Copyright 2012, Michigan Radio