Wed
Jun 13 2007
05:26 pm
High School Graduation Rates from "Education Week"
By: bizgrrl

"Education Week" has recently published their new "Diplomas Count 2007" report. Lots of information for the entire country with the ability to drill-down to the school district level using the "Mapping Tool".

The newest graduation rate data is for 2004 with comparisons to the previous nine years.

The Knox County 2004 High School Graduation Rate (according to this report) is 82.8%. This is a pretty big jump from previous years (68.1, 71.2, 55.3, 59.9, 69.6, 65.8, 64.3, 63.1, 66.6).

Maryville City Schools reports 81.1% graduation rate for 2004. Previous years for Maryville City are consistently better than Knox County, with the exception of 2002 (80.2, 70.6, 76.2, 63.5, 77.1, N/A, 66.1, 78.7, 75.5).

Blount County reports an elevated graduation rate for 2004, 84.4%. However, Blount County appears quite inconsistent in the past ten years (72.8, 59.0, 64.3, 44.2, 75.4, N/A, 62.0, 64.3, 62.6).

City of Alcoa appears to be having a real problem with graduating their seniors with a 2004 rate of 55.5%. Except for two years (2001 and 2002), the City of Alcoa consistently has very low graduation rates (43.1, 77.4, 81.3, N/A, N/A, N/A, 42.7, 58.1, 65.6).

And just one more to review the wide discrepancies in East TN high school graduation rates, Loudon County Schools is reporting a 2004 graduation rate of 36.6%. This is the second worst year for Loudon County in the ten year reporting period. In 1999 Loudon County reported a graduation rate of 30.5%. Similar to the City of Alcoa, Loudon County is pretty consistent in their low graduation rates (63.5, 44.1, 54.3, N/A, 30.5, N/A, 52.0, 52.6, 80.0).

Musing the information.

Why the big jump for Knox County?

Why do the City of Alcoa and Loudon County schools do so poorly? Except for being in East TN, I don't think the two have that much in common. The City of Alcoa is more urban (if you can call it that) and has a more diverse population than Loudon County. I wonder if it is as simple as how they do the calculations.

Is your school system doing a good job of graduating its high school students?

Topics:
R. Neal's picture

google "texas miracle"

Submitted by R. Neal on Wed, 2007/06/13 - 5:43pm.

google "texas miracle"

smalc's picture

Wow, I grew up in Loudon

Submitted by smalc on Thu, 2007/06/14 - 9:14am.

Wow, I grew up in Loudon County and went to Loudon County schools from K through 8. I then went to high school at Lenoir City, which has a reported rate of 77.8%. That sounds about right.

I just can't believe that Loudon County (Loudon city and Greenback high schools) graduate only 36.5% of the students that start 9th grade there (I know the calcs aren't as simple as that, but still). There would be tremendous uproar in the community and school board. I'm sure they would dispute the calcs. Whether their own calcs would include some "Tennessee miracle", I don't know.

Tamara Shepherd's picture

Discrep

Submitted by Tamara Shepherd on Thu, 2007/06/14 - 9:59am.

There's quite a discrepancy between Loudon County grad rates per this report and per the 2006 Tennessee State Report Card. Makes no sense to me...

Per the 2006 Tennessee State Report Card:

Loudon Co. High School (serving grades 9-12):
Graduation Percent (for '05)--82.4%
NCLB Status--Good Standing
ACT Composite--19.8%
Econ Disadvantaged--8.1%

Greenback School (serving grades K-12):
Graduation Percent (for '05)--91.1%
NCLB Status--Good Standing
ACT Composite--19.8
Econ Disadvantaged--40.7%

View school data at:
(link...)

bizgrrl's picture

There's quite a discrepancy

Submitted by bizgrrl on Thu, 2007/06/14 - 12:58pm.

There's quite a discrepancy between Loudon County grad rates per this report and per the 2006 Tennessee State Report Card. Makes no sense to me...

I see that. I will ask them. Maybe I will get a response.

bizgrrl's picture

I spoke with someone on the

Submitted by bizgrrl on Thu, 2007/06/14 - 4:40pm.

I spoke with someone on the Research Staff at Education Week. He did not get into the specifics of Loudon County or the City of Alcoa graduation rates. He discussed things that Education Week may do to calculate graduation rates for the Diplomas Count 2007 report that school districts may not.

Education Week (EW) tries to look at "diploma recipients", e.g. "students that walk across the stage and get a diploma in their hand". They do not include GED recipients or certificates of completion/graduation. He briefly gave an explanation of the CPI index they use, which is described in the Special Reports available for each district viewed using the Mapping Tool.

They use the "Common Core of Data (CCD), an annual census of public schools and school districts conducted by the US Dept of Education. Detailed methodology of the CCD can be found in the technical documentation of the Nat'l Center for Education Statistics (nces.ed.gov/ccd).

Check out this report from the NCES (PDF pages 21 & 22, or numbered pages 13 & 14)
It has the State of TN with a 68.5% graduation rate for school year 2004/2005, whereas the State of TN reports a 77.9% graduation rate for 2005.

Sounds too much like a Texas miracle for me. I suppose it could also mean that graduation rates might be the same at South-Doyle and Farragut, just reported differently :)

Carole Borges's picture

Statistics are very tricky...

Submitted by Carole Borges on Fri, 2007/06/15 - 9:36pm.

They never tell the whole story and can be used in many different ways to achieve different outcomes. Assessing the school system is a very complicated process and performed in many different ways according to different groups. It's pretty hard to pin down the facts.

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