Graduation — We Reach The Halfway Mark

Exactly 50 percent of 9th graders who entered New York City high schools in 2002 graduated within four years, the state said yesterday, an increase from the 2005 graduation rate.

You can really play glass-half-full-glass-half-empty games here, but most of the press (here and here) took their cue from the mayor and touted the gains.

There is no reason to question them. The achievement of students, teachers and administrators is real and welcome. As one young man, a representative of the Urban Youth Collaborative, said at City Hall last week, “We don’t want to drop out either.”

But this is the first year that the city and state have agreed on a single counting methodology. Last year there was a huge controversy over the rates, when the state said New York City graduated just 43.5 percent of its students in four years and the city said it graduated 58.2% on time. (The state has since revised the 43.5 percent figure to 47 percent, and one would have to be naive not to believe there was some high-level politics involved in the new numbers.)

Nevertheless, the 50% figure reflects a common agreement that excludes GEDs, includes some special education students and does not count students who graduated in August rather than June.

The 50 percent, as anyone who works in a high school knows, is an average that may say almost nothing about what’s going on in individual schools. The state published rates for every school, which the N.Y. Post supplied as a PDF. Looking through it, you can see that some schools literally graduate no one in four years and some schools graduate 96 percent. Charter schools around the state did particularly badly, graduating just 26 percent in four years while 34 percent of the cohort dropped out. In the city, the four-year dropout rate is over 50 percent in some large high schools, which in many others students persevere, with nearly half still enrolled for a fifth year.

The Mayor lauded that perseverence. And the DOE said (and it’s true) that it doesn’t matter so much how you count as long as you’re clear about who’s included and excluded, and you count the same way each time.

So for that reason DOE is planning to issue its own graduation report, using the old methodology, sometime before the end of the school year so there will be a consistent history. That report has a lot of important detail–for example the graduation rates of ELLs and former ELLs, the racial and ethnic breakdowns of city graduates, and all the numbers of discharged and transferred students. The state’s does not have as much detail on the city, so it’s important DOE keep its promise and issue its own report.

One thing the state’s powerpoint (available via the link above) does have are several pages of recommendations based on how successful schools increase graduation rates. Among the ideas are 8th grade bridge programs; assigning a teacher “advocate” to groups of 15 at-risk students to meet with those kids every day; group meetings of teachers who examine student work and their own practices in regular professional conversations; and ensuring that guidance and social support systems are in place for students.

Many of these features are lacking in the city’s most high-needs schools and it’s crucial they be put in place. But that’s grist for a separate post. Today’s a day to congratulate those who worked so hard, students and adults alike. God speed to the graduates.