This article reports on plans by the Bush administration to set a uniform way for states to calculate and report their graduation rates, which could make it harder for high schools to avoid accountability measures under the No Child Left Behind Act. In the U.S. Department of Education's latest move to refine the implementation of the NCLB law, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings said last week she would propose rules that would "ensure that all states use the same formula to calculate how many students graduate from high school on time." Secretary Spellings said that federal action is needed because states often publish graduation-rate that fail to accurately count all students who drop out of school. The secretary did not explain which formula she would propose for states to use, nor did she say whether high schools and school districts would be held accountable for their graduation rates for every subgroup of students. Ms. Spellings also did not say whether the Education Department would require states to set ambitious targets for improving graduation rates. Under plans previously approved by the department, most states' rules allow high schools and school districts to escape the NCLB law's accountability measures even though they make little or no progress in improving graduation rates, said Bethany Little, the vice president for policy at the Alliance for Excellent Education, a Washington advocacy group for high school improvement. Secretary Spellings' proposal follows an earlier national initiative to improve the quality of data on dropouts and graduates.