WCPSS Releases 2007-08 Graduation Rate Results
July 21, 2008 – Three high schools have graduation rates above 90 percent as described in a report on graduation rates for 2007-08 released by the Wake County Public School System today.
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More details on 2007-08 WCPSS Graduation Rate (Requires Adobe Acrobat) |
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East Wake School of Health Science had the highest rate at 96.3 percent. The rate for Green Hope High was 92.6 and Apex High had 90.1. The East Wake School of Engineering Systems just missed the 90 percent mark with a graduation rate of 89.6. Another eight WCPSS high schools had graduation rates higher than 83. Eight other high schools report rates higher than 74.
The graduation rate is based on the number of ninth grade students who graduate four years later. The NC Department of Public Instruction began reporting a four-year on-time graduation rate for each high school and district across the state based on the incoming ninth grade class of 2002-03.
“We are being asked to address the needs of more students and meet greater challenges,” said Wake Superintendent Del Burns. “We need the help of our community to meet these demands while pushing towards graduating not most, but all of our students.”
The overall WCPSS graduation rate for 2007-08 was 78.8 percent, meaning that about four out of every five students who enrolled in ninth grade for the first time in the fall of 2004 had graduated four years later. This WCPSS rate was down slightly from 2006-07, when 79.3% percent of the cohort graduated.
For 2007-08, female students had a higher graduation rate than male students, by close to nine percentage points.
The four-year graduation rate varied considerably among ethnic subgroups, with nine out of ten Asian and White students, six out of ten African American students and five out of ten Hispanic/Latino students graduating on time.
Students with disabilities (SWD), students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch (FRL),
and students with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) also had graduation rates that were
below the system wide average. Graduation rates for all three groups decreased compared to 2006-07. Six out of ten FRL and SWD students graduated on time. Fewer than four out of ten LEP students graduated on time.
NCLB and graduation rates
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires schools that graduate twelfth grade students to report a graduation rate as part of the measurement of Adequate Yearly Progress. The state developed data systems and rules that allowed reporting of this rate beginning in the 2006-07 school year.
The four-year cohort graduation rate for 2007-08 is defined as follows: The percentage of students entering the ninth grade for the first time during the 2004-05 school year who earned a diploma by or prior to the spring of 2008. There are a number of complex rules established by the state with respect to how and whether students are counted.
Examples of those rules and exceptions include:
• Students repeating ninth grade in 2004-05 (i.e., were also in ninth grade in 2003-04) are not included;
• Students who transfer into a school after ninth grade are included if they transfer on grade level;
• Students who transfer from one NC public school to another on grade level are taken out of the sending school’s calculations, and are added to the receiving school’s calculations;
• Students who leave the school and their whereabouts cannot be tracked (e.g., students who move to another state or another country) are removed from the rate calculations; and
• Students who receive certificates of completion rather than an actual diploma (e.g., certain students with disabilities) are not counted as graduates.
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