31.   Also at issue was the way the TEA calculated the dropout rates.

32.   Bush said the dropout rate is too high.

33.   But Haney, the Boston College professor who researched the Texas tests, concludes that the higher scores have come partly because Texas has greatly underestimated its dropout rate.

34.   But Loury and Garman also find that as black students with comparable test scores and family income attend more selective institutions, their dropout rate tends to rise.

35.   But the high school dropout rate is still too high and the daily attendance rate too low.

36.   But they also heard about measuring their success through reduced teen pregnancies, infant mortality and high school dropout rates.

37.   But they expressed concerns that the Regents plan would sharply raise costs and increase the dropout rate.

38.   Child poverty, teen pregnancy and low birth weight, and high school dropout rates are among the worst in the state.

39.   Consumers can expect a confusing debate about the validity of different methods of calculating senior plan dropout rates.

40.   Cortines said he had demanded more honest reporting of school data, from test scores to dropout rates.