Late breaking news: the NY State Education Department released their graduation rate data for NYC and the rest of the state.
Readers may recall our March 14th post where we reported negotiations where the NYC DoE was insisting that the state report the city's graduation rate at 50% or greater while the state wanted it lower.
Well, low and behold, the number published today is 50%. Somehow, the number for last year's graduation rate, which had been 43.5%, has been revised to 47%!
Click here to get to the state press release and Powerpoint charts.
Several things are strange about the NYC data as reported -- including that the 2002 cohort is lower than in 2000 cohort despite demographic trends to the contrary. Of course, the fewer students entering 9th grade, the fewer diplomas have to be granted to achieve a higher rate.
Update: The morning press reports don't explain why the state decided to revise the rates upward. If anyone knows, leave us a comment.
Wasn't there a story about the state agreeing to revise figures or count them differently to accomodate Klein's figures? I thought I read it here, in fact.
ReplyDeleteYes, click on the "March 14th" link to go back to our earlier post.
ReplyDeleteAccording to edwize:
ReplyDelete"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."
http://edwize.org/graduation-we-reach-the-halfway-mark