Some states submitted no graduation data at all.

Researchers surveyed parents to obtain graduation data; of the 63 percent who responded, the student graduation rate was 82 percent versus 70 percent for the control group.

The N.C.A.A. does in fact collect graduation data and has since 1986 as the result of a mandate issued during a special convention a year earlier.

Under the disclosure measure, institutions will begin collecting the graduation data immediately, with the due date set at Oct. 1, 1991, for Division I and at Oct. 1, 1994, for Division II.

Because the schools examined had to have several years' worth of graduation data, most of the dozens of alternative academies founded since 1993 were excluded.

And they added that the preliminary graduation data at many of the newer schools, centered on such themes as the city's museums and its infrastructure, are even more impressive than at the schools that were studied in depth.

A combination of Regents exams, SAT scores, and graduation data.