A remarkable statistic

The news that Burke County High School's graduation rate hit 68 percent this year is remarkable, if not phenomenal. For many years the rate hovered below 50 percent. That meant that a child entering the ninth grade had less than a 50-50 chance of graduating.

It was one of the most discouraging statistics our school officials had to face. Now things have clearly changed. Innovative programs put in place by the Burke County Board of Education and school administrators have improved a ninth grader's chance of graduating by about 50 percent. The changes include after school tutoring, new "composite" school day scheduling, evening classes and more.

In addition to the overall improvement, the gap between white and African-American students has almost disappeared. For as long as we can remember, African American students had a much lower success rate than whites. Though there is still a slight difference, the gains made by African-American students are outpacing those of the whites, leading to a diminishing gap.

School officials are justifiably proud of these results. In our opinion, the graduation rate of our children may be the most important statistic a school system can point to. We applaud the efforts that have led to this dramatic improvement.