Invisible dropouts

Re “California high schoolers show gains on exit exam,”

Aug. 24

The reason we have a 93.3% success rate for the California high school exit examination is that this number does not account for the double-digit percentage of students who have dropped out. State Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell wants to run for governor and needs this statistic to boost his image in a state whose education system ranks near the bottom of the country. He and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger did away with the system to track students throughout the state as they move geographically and within the school system. California is one of the few states that does not have such a system; hence our students get lost in the shuffle and we fail to implement effective education practices.

Sarah Evans

Los Angeles