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WASHINGTON - A report says fewer than 50 percent of high school students are graduating from D.C.'s public schools.

The study by researchers affiliated with Education Week examined data from 1996 to 2006, the latest available federal figures.

The study found that in 2006, the D.C. graduation rate fell to 48.8 percent, down 8.8 percentage points from the previous year. The figure didn't include public charter schools.

D.C. schools spokeswoman Jennifer Calloway noted the data is from the period before schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee took office in 2007. Rhee is acknowledging that District schools have a lot more work to do.

"Of all of the 9th graders, only 9% of them end up graduating from college," said Rhee.

Speaking to a room of educators at a conference for the non-profit City Year, Rhee said D.C. schools face tremendous challenged with a graduation rate of 48%.

"At the same time we have to have the same standards with Montgomery and Fairfax Counties." Montgomery County (web | news) schools are tied with Houston schools for the best in the nation, with a graduation rate of 80%.

Rhee says being nestles among strong suburban school districts gives D.C. something to shoot for. "It gives us peers with whom we're taking some of the best practices they have and that we're implementing with our students."

The City Year summit described America's drop out rate as a crisis. "Every 26 seconds a student gives up on school in America," said Michael Brown, City Year CEO.

D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty said two years ago, he hired Rhee to turn around the District's drop out rate. "While we're not all the way there, we're definitely heading in the right direction," said Fenty.

It remains to be seen how Rhee's leadership will affect future graduation rates. The Education Week report runs through 2006; Rhee was hired in 2007. But even she acknowledges the numbers might not turn around right away.

"We have a tremendous amount of work to do before we can say that we're doing our job of educating children well and part of that is earning a high school diploma."

Rhee says she hopes the City Year organization will help turn around troubled D.C. schools. She announced plans to expand the youth service program from 4 to 33 schools over a five year time period.

As for the graduation rate report, Virginia's rate of 69.2 percent in 2006 was identical to the national average. In Maryland, the graduation rate was 73.5 percent.

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