Graduating on time, prepared for the future

Graduation Awareness Week
A resolution approved by the Board of Education at its Sept. 2 meeting recognizes Sept. 7-13 as Graduation Awareness Week. In its resolution, the school board says graduation is a basic goal of all students that affects the future of the student and the community. The board affirms its commitment to all students graduating on-time, prepared for the future and calls for increased community awareness and support for on time graduation for all students.

Graduation Rate
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.

The WCPSS graduation rate of 78.8 percent is significantly higher than the North Carolina graduation rate of 69.9 percent. However, the WCPSS rate was down slightly from 2006-07, when 79.3% percent of the cohort graduated.

“It is the ultimate test of the successful experience of Wake County Public Schools by any individual youngster," said WCPSS Assistant Superintendent David Holdzkom. “What every parent wants is for their child to complete school successfully within the designated period of time. Typically, a parent of a kindergarten student takes that child to school and hopes that 13 years later the parent will be able to watch that child graduate.”

WCPSS schools and graduation rate
Two Wake County Public School System high schools were honored by Dr. June Atkinson, state Superintendent of Education, during ceremonies marking state Graduation Awareness Week.

Dr. Atkinson congratulated Apex High principal Matt Wight and Green Hope High principal Jim Hedrick for their school’s graduation rates. Students from the two schools joined in the state celebration by signing pledges to stay in school and graduate.

Apex High had the second highest graduation rate of North Carolina schools with 500 or more students in its cohort size. The school’s graduation rate for the Class of 2008 was 90.1.

Green Hope High had the second highest graduation rate of North Carolina schools having 400-499 students in its cohort. The school’s graduation rate for the Class of 2008 was 92.6.

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.

WCPSS demographics and graduation rate
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.

WCPSS and the graduation rate
The WCPSS vision statement is that all students will graduate on time prepared for the future.

The Board of Education continues to discuss a school administration proposal to develop a new community goal centered on the graduation rate. One item discussed was creating a goal where the graduation rate would increase to 90 percent in four years, reducing by half the percent of students not graduating.

Holdzkom says that would be a very ambitious goal. “None of the big districts in the nation have actually reached that goal,” said Holdzkom. “We could be the first to achieve the 90 percent goal. The goal is attainable. It is not going to be easy.”

Demands on students are increasing. The state has established higher standards that for the first time in 2010 require passage of five state End-of-Course exams and completion of a graduation project for students to graduate from high school.

WCPSS has taken steps to strengthen high schools. Teachers are working in teams to discuss instruction and steps they can take to meet the academic needs of individual students. Some schools are providing additional instructional opportunities for students after school and on Saturdays. With the help of a New Schools grant, East Wake High divided into four schools with themed instruction, rigorous classes and more adult attention to individual student needs. Nearly 150 students are enrolled in the two-year old Wake Early College of Health and Science that provides students an opportunity to earn their high school diploma and an associates degree in five years.

Students who do not graduate and drop out of school earn less and experience a poorer quality of life than those who graduate. One report indicates dropouts for the state of North Carolina from the Class of 2007 will cost the state almost $10.8 billion in lost wages, taxes and productivity over their lifetime. The reports states that employers will be demanding well-trained, highly skilled employees in the workplace of the future.