Spellings will issue new regulations on state/district dropout reporting

As reported in this morning's NY Times, US Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings will institute new rules & regs for dropout reporting. It's expected that the US DOE will require reporting in accordance with the governors' compact, through which most states have stated their intent to count dropouts in the same manner. Since this method will require reporting at the student level, Spellings is expected to authorize states to use the governors' agreed-on method or an estimate of that method.

Here's the operative paragraph from Spelling's speech today; you can read her complete official remarks here.

"In the coming weeks, I will take administrative steps to ensure that all states use the same formula to calculate how many students graduate from high school on time, and how many drop out. In addition, we will make this data public so that people nationwide can compare how students of every race, background, and income level are performing."