Fewer dropout factories... but the long race isn't even close to over

You can read a new report from the America's Promise Alliance in two ways.

First, the glass-half-full approach: The number of high schools that fall into the alliance's definition of "dropout factories" fell by more than 6 percent from 2008 to 2009.

And then, the glass-half-empty take: 1,634 schools still fail to graduate more than six out of every 10 students. 

We're big fans of optimism here at NoDropouts.org — and this report gives us an opportunity to reflect on what might just be working to reduce the number of failing schools in this country. On the other hand, the bottom line simply cannot be ignored.

One thousand six hundred and thirty four dropout factories. That's a lot of failing schools — and that's a lot of students who still are being denied their right — yes, their RIGHT — to attend a school that has proven to be proficient at graduating its students. 

And while the news out of places like California and South Carolina was good (both states saw a decrease in 25 schools on the "dropout factory" list,) the news from Georgia and New York was not (both registered a 10-school increase in badly failing schools.)

The report's writers like their glasses half-full.

"It is noteworthy that urban and rural schools that had proven to be the most challenging to reform are showing, at least in some locales, signs of forward movement," they wrote.

Fair enough, but mere signs of forward movement aren't enough in this long race. If this nation is to increase its graduation rate to 90 percent by 2020 — as the Alliance and the Obama administration has suggested it must — it won't get there by crawling or walking.

Or even, for that matter, by running.

No, we need to start sprinting. And we need to start now.