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Drop Out Rates: Should Traditional and Online Schools Have Their Own Rates?

Dropout rates are a primary concern for universities and governments that want to create accountability in higher education . How dropout rates are defined has a large impact on the future success of schools and may influence those that will be around in the future . Some have argued that the timetables and lack of understanding put online schools at a disadvantage under definitions more in tune with the needs of traditional schools . How Drop Out Rates are Defined The way in which dropout rates are set can make a large difference in the final rate . For example , if a dropout rate is by course level it will have one value while if it is calculated over a year , or two years , will have another . If calculated over longer periods of times the rates may capture students who bounce in and out of classes but have not given up on their education . When a student drops is confusing . The

Redefining Dropout Rates for the Working Scholar

Dropout rates have become an important educational marker of institutional success. It doesn’t matter if the metric is used to define high schools, college, or even training. A drop out is a sunk cost and administrators are concerned about its implications for the future of certain programs. However, dropout rates, like any other metric, is only part of the issue. It is a number that is redefined depending on which definition the evaluator wishes to use and the general educational environment. An article in the International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning discussed the nature of common definitions of dropout and how these measurements are somewhat subjective (Grau-Valldosera & Minguillon, 2014). Current definitions may be inaccurate and not applicable to online education as much as it is to traditional schools.  Students in the online system may leave and return a year or more later; they are calculated as dropouts. Under more traditional systems the