I once had the misfortune to discover, first hand, how schools fudge test and college admission data. The principal of the high school boasted how the SAT scores for that school were in the "top 20%" for the state (Illinois). But in Illinois, they mandate school report cards, so I got the one for that school, being naturally skeptical. The principal was right, but what he neglected to mention was that only 15% of the students even bothered to take the test. When looking at college admissions of graduates, the school placed in the bottom third.
When confronted with this the principal said, "We're working on it" and nothing more.
So, I've grown not to trust school administrators when it comes to school performance. I have lived in Arkansas (Fayetteville - one of the "better" places for education). Even there, the percentage of students going on to some other "higher" education (VoTech included) was only about 45% IIRC. Clearly other parts of Arkansas would be worse than this.
The only fair assessment would be for all students graduating in every state and school district to take a standardized test. Then a meaningful comparison could be made. Otherwise it's all spin.
Oops, I forgot the dropouts. There has to be a way of including them in any assessment, too.