Graduation Rates: Improving Data

• School districts have improved their record-keeping over time, counting more students.

• Example: schools first reported 199,000 students in the group who started 9th grade in 2000. A year later, they reported 210,000 students in that same group. The increase was due to better record-keeping.

• The 4-year graduation rates in the following slides are based on the latest, more complete data from school districts. As a result, some of the results may vary slightly from graduation rates presented in 2005 and 2006. Differences are indicated.