Many students drop out of public schools because they fall behind academically. But multiple factors determine if a child who enters public kindergarten will some day walk across a stage to receive a diploma.

Dropouts have a small chance of earning their diploma and face a life of hardships and disappointments. And they are an expensive drag on society.

Decatur has a debate in some circles about getting test scores up while providing the quality education that comes with the International Baccalaureate Degree, which is in its second year here and doing well.

The city experienced the devastation that low test scores have on economic development when a real estate specialist went on NBC’s “Today” show Sept. 20 and said our schools are bad. She drew her false conclusion from test scores.

While the city had no schools on the “dropout factory” list, 42 state schools were included. Not being on that list is a plus for the city.

To remedy the dropout problem, State School Superintendent of Education Joe Morton wants to hire more graduation coaches to help students stay in school.

East Lawrence High School had a dropout problem that it turned around quickly because it concentrated on keeping students in school. The graduation rate today at East Lawrence is more than 90 percent.

Targeting test scores in a similar way might yield similar results. Let us acknowledge that we have a test score problem and ask our educators how we can help bring them up to at least the national level.

Together, we can figure it out and, in doing so, we can change lives.

It’s an exciting challenge.

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