This paper contains a comparison of high school completion rates across Australian states and territories from 1989 to 2002. Because the 'official' statistics contain a number of flaws, Chris Ryan and Louise Watson have produced adjusted figures which show that the peak in school retention rates in the early 1990s was less pronounced and the subsequent decline smaller. Unlike the official figures, the adjusted meaure shows a Year 12 retention rate no lower in the late 1990s than it had been in the early 1990s.