Today, the District of Columbia Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) released the 2013-2014 graduation rates for the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) and the District’s public charter schools.
The District uses the Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate (ACGR) to maintain a consistent standard for high school graduation rate reporting. Under the ACGR, a ‘cohort’ of students entering school as first-time 9th graders in 2010–2011 were tracked for four years to determine the total number of students who graduated from high school with a regular diploma during the 2013-2014 academic year. The District’s graduation rate in the 2013-2014 academic year was 61.4%, which is similar to the graduation rate of 61.5% for the 2012-2013 academic year.
The graduation rate for DCPS increased 2 percentage points from 56.3% to 58.3%. There were significant increases in the following DCPS neighborhood high schools:
- Woodson Senior High School graduation rate increased from 44.2% to 60.3%;
- Roosevelt Senior High School graduation rate increased from 48.1% to 62.4%; and
- Columbia Heights Education Campus graduation rate increased from 73.1% to 83.6%.
The District’s public charter school graduation rates decreased from 75.6% to 68.9%.
Overall, the District’s African-American student graduation rate remained static at 59.8%. The District’s economically disadvantaged subgroup graduation rate increased from 58.3% to 60.1%.
Applying a five year ACGR for a cohort of students entering school as first-time 9th graders in 2009–2010, the overall graduation rate is 67.6%. The rate for District of Columbia Public Schools is 63.1%, and the rate for the District’s public charter schools is 79.9%.
The District’s graduation rate measurements account for students who transferred out of the cohort to private schooling, home schooling, another state or country or due to death or permanent incapacitation as well as students who transferred into the DC public or public charter school system after being a first-time 9th grader in academic year 2010-2011 elsewhere.
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