A new survey says our high school graduation rates are down–but it also lumps us in with Los Angeles

Here’s what former Secretary of State Colin Powell has been up to: he’s been judging us. Someone has to, right? Turns out, he’s it.

Powell is the founding chair of the America’s Promise Alliance–a group dedicated to “forging a strong and effective partnership alliance committed to seeing that children experience the fundamental resources they need to succeed.”

Last Wednesday (we’ve been busy) that meant releasing the Gothic-sounding “Cities in Crisis 2009: Closing the Graduation Gap,” which appears to demonstrate that A) Long Beach high school graduation rates are falling slowly; and B) we’re apparently part of Los Angeles. Theo not like.

First the graduation rates: while the nationwide graduation rate rose 4.8 percentage points from 65.8 percent in 1995 to 70.6 percent in 2005, the graduation rate for Long Beach Unified School District fell 3.7 percent during the same time period, from 67.7 percent in 1995 to 64 percent in 2005.

This would seem like terrible news–and admittedly, it’s not great. But we still ranked ninth out of 50, behind the Hawaii Department of Education at 67.4 percent, and ahead of San Diego Unified, at 63.7 percent (both as of 2005).

Good old Los Angeles Unified is way down the list at No. 44, with a 44 percent graduation rate–meaning that according to America’s Promise Alliance, in 2005, 56 percent of L.A. Unified students didn’t graduate. Ouch.

They were edged out for 43rd place by Clark County School District, serving Las Vegas, with a 44.5 percent graduation rate (again, as of 2005).

What does this mean? Again, it’s not terrible news, says Dr. Christopher B. Swanson, director of the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, which compiled the report.

“Four points over a period of 10 years is not really a large change,” Swanson says. “That’s about a third of a percentage point a year so that’s not a tremendous difference.”

L.A. Unified performed about the same as Long Beach Unified–declining a modest 3.6 percent, which puts it, obviously, just ahead of us.

If you want change, look to Las Vegas: from 1995 to 2005 (the period surveyed), its graduation rate declined a shocking 23.1 percent. Why? Swanson blames the region’s massive boom (and now, bust), and its “disadvantaged population.”

Speaking of disadvantaged, though, this report is also interesting for showing how people outside Southern California regard Long Beach: as an appendage of Los Angeles, despite our distance, our distinct economy, our beach, and our own identity.

But there we are–lumped in with Los Angeles, in a table listing the 50 largest cities in the U.S. and their principal school districts: we’re one of the 69 school districts in Los Angeles. It’s the same story in a table listing the graduation rates in the nation’s largest metropolitan areas.

In this case, being considered part of Los Angeles drags our graduation rate down to a collective 63.8 percent. Can’t people back east read a map?

“Someone from Arlington [Texas] asked us that the other day,” Swanson says, noting that Arlington suffered a similar fate in this report, being located directly between Dallas and Fort Worth. (Caught in the crossfire, as Stevie Ray Vaughan might have put it.)

“As defined by the federal government, Long Beach and Los Angeles  share the same urban/suburban environment,” Swanson says. And that’s because … ?

“Proximity is a piece of it; they’re pretty close together,” Swanson says. “The other part of it is commuting time and things like that. When they do that, the Long Beach-Los Angeles area is an area unto itself.”

Sounds like a defensible position–but I’m guessing anyone who defends it hasn’t tried driving around here during rush hour.

Tags: America’s Promise Alliance, California, colin powell, Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, high school graduation rates, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Southern California, The District Weekly, Theo Douglas