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Carolina News Graduation rates lag despite low dropout rates Staff Report^ Associated Press Columbia — At the same time the dropout rate in South Carolina schools is at its lowest, a record number of students aren’t graduating on time, state Education Department figures show. One in three members of South Car olina's Class of 1998 didn’t graduate on lime, marking the sixth straight year the completion rate fell and the worst per foimance since state educators began track ing school completion statistics in 1980. Thegraduation statistics were virtu ally ignored at last week’s state Education Board meeting when educators touted the state’s 2.7 percent dropout rate, the lowest in state history. The State newspaper reported early this year that more than 20,000 students in the Class of 1997 didn’t graduate, but weren’t counted as dropouts. Even education officials said they can’t trust the numbers. “There’s a lot we have to do in or der for us to be more comfortable with the data we collect,” state Education Superintendent Inez Tenenbaum said. Jay Smink, head of the National Dropout Prevention Center at Clemson University, said the public can’t under stand the problem because dropout num bers are flawed. “State government lists a 2.7 percent dropout rate, but I’ve had two superin tendents in my office recently who told me their completion rates were 43 per cent and 57 percent,” Smink said. “That’s the real number that superintendents are living with. That 2.7 percent dropout rate number is ridiculous.” Frank White, who calculates the state’s dropout rate, said South Carolina doesn’t know how many students quit without earning a diploma. The completion rate isn’t trustwor thy because it doesn’t account for students who move or students who graduate lat er, he said. Next year’s numbers won’t be any more accurate because the report will use the same methods. The state’s dropout count doesn’t include students who quit school but say they’ll attend adult education. No one checks to see whether they ' actually attend or graduate. White estimates South Carolina’s true dropout rate is closer to 20 percent a year. That includes students who later earn de grees through adult education classes. About 13,000 students graduate each year from adult education classes. But thousands never receive a high school degree, don’t earn a GED and are never counted as dropouts. Tenenbaum said educatbrs need So cial Security numbers to better track students, especially those who leave the slate. But Education Department lawyers say schools can’t make students release Social Security numbers. Tenenbaum also said the state needs more staff to count dropouts. “We don’t have enough manpower now to collect all the data needed for ac countability standards and the Palmetto Achievement Challenge Tests,” she said. Civil War re-enactor battles misconceptions by Erik Neely The Charleston Post & Courier Charleston — During Friday’s cere mony to rebury Confederate soldiers and mariners, a visitor said Charleston must be the only city in America still burying Confederates two months before the end of the millennium. Even in Charleston where more than 1,000 men in Civil War gray walked five milesihrough the heart of the city, and where hundreds more re-enact ed the 1862 Battle of Secessionville at Boone Hall Plantation, marching for the Confederacy is a secret passion for many. An estimated 40,00*0 to 50,000 peo ple re-enact Civil Whr battles. Nearly all are proud to talk to strangers about their ancestry and hobby, but many hide that information from co-workers. They do not want to be Dimed or in terviewed by the media. They lock the doors to their museum rooms when visi tors come to the house. “I have some colleagues who would not be able to understand it,” said Eddie Hall, a history teacher at a local high school. “I don’t want to call attention To it.” He said it is the honor and sacriDce that he respects about the Southern sol dier, but some only comprehend the racial implications of Civil Whr re-enacting. He points out that re-enactors play Union troops as often as Rebels. A South Car oDna lawyer said he wouldn’t feel com foitable telling clients or friends about his collection of Confederate memorabil ia..”The assertion that Southern soldiers went to war to preserve slavery is shal low, he said, but he’s also concerned about being labeled a redneck or racist. “[The Confederate soldier] was a fam ily man,” he said. “He was a churchgoer. He followed a strong moral code. He be lieved in loyalty and friendship and so cializing.” Some Confederate re-enactors are not concerned about having their hobby known, but they understand the sentiments of their comrades. Hall said he’s had to explain himself to people who have had a prob lem with his hobby. “I sit them down, and I tell them, it’s not about slavery, it’s not about the Ku Klux Klan,” he said. “Peo ple will see you’re not a racist or a raving lunatic.” That secrecy of some participants masks an activity they are proud of. Many punish themselves to preserve historical accuracy, enduring 10-mile marches while wearing shoes without support and eating meals of beef jerky, homemade hardtack and water. No battle is more special to South Car olina re-enactors than Secessionville, re enacted twice over the weekend. Even more than Fort Sumter, Fort Lamar’s 15-foot earthworks on James Island hold the hearts of Lowcountry Civil War buffs. On the drizzly morning of June 16, 1862,1,250 Confederate soldiers repulsed 3,500 Union soldiers. I NS Seawell's parking lot - 1125 Rosewood Drive // across the street from "the ROCKET" at the State Fairgrounds. yVH // T|ie lest part IS tfiat it IS all Ferr; MuSk L°ts <j Great F°°l DrlnkS ani D°»r FrlzeS. J / // KiVenlrSJ«rtfiefirst?eoIijcstuientsInatteniance. / General parkin® IS aVallalle at SeaWell'S J°r $7 per Vehicle. // THIS TAILGATE PARTY IS AN ALCOHOL, OTHER DRUG AND VIOLENCE-FREE ENVIRONMENT \\ III // sponsored by the USC Office of Alcohol & Drug Programs and GAMMA. y\I / / // Paid for, in part, with student activity fees. YY / / // Additional funding provided from SC DAODAS Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws Project. YY / // Actual time or event may change due to funding or programmatic decisions. For additional information, please call 777-6688. //V\ i I Department of Student Life Division of Student & Alumni Services _ Y \ here’s your chance to really go somewhere. 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