Graduation rates decline in majority of Washtenaw County school districts

The only other area school district below the state average of 75.5 percent was the Ypsilanti school district, which had a graduation rate of 66.3 percent.

Six of the 10 traditional school districts in Washtenaw County saw decreases in graduation rates when comparing the class of 2008 to the class of 2007. Graduation rates weren't available for both years for the two area charter high schools. The state does not release data on private schools.

The highest graduation rate for a local district belonged to Dexter, with a 93.4 percent graduation rate, down from 96.5 the previous year.

The countywide graduation rate dipped slightly, from 84.3 percent for the class of 2007 to 83.2 percent for the class of 2008.

Willow Run Superintendent Doris Hope-Jackson said her staff is working to raise the district’s rate, although she’s not sure it’s accurate.

“The 2008 graduation rate represents the students entering as freshmen in 2004 and ... I was not employed with the Willow Run Community Schools at that time,” she said. “In the past year, a graduation coach/mentor program was implemented to help students successfully navigate through the four-year high school experience as 'on-time graduates.'

“Given that the percentage reported appears to be inconsistent with the number of students reported ‘on track’ and the number actually graduating, my staff and I are in the process of reviewing the data entered to determine whether or not some of the difference is due to a data entry inconsistency.

“In addition, some students appear to need that extra year, graduating in five years as opposed to four.

“The staff and I will continue to seek ways to support students in staying in school and graduating on time.”

The state calculates the graduation rate by taking the number of students that enter a high school as freshmen, adding the students that transfer in and subtracting the students that transfer out. Officials then look at the number of students graduating four years later to come up with the graduation rate..

“The graduation rates across Washtenaw County have remained relatively stable for the last two years,” said Naomi Norman, the director of assessment, planning and research for the Washtenaw Intermediate School District. “Washtenaw County schools continue to graduate to students at a higher rate than the state as a whole.”

Ann Arbor is among the local districts above the state average.

The graduation rate for Ann Arbor’s class of 2008 was 87.5 percent. That’s up just under a percentage point from the class of 2007.

“Overall the rate is pretty consistent,” said Ann Arbor Superintendent Todd Roberts. “I’ll be interested to see it for this year’s class, after we’ve put in place credit recovery programs and have been running a huge summer school program designed to help students catch up on credits. We’re trying to get in front of the new high school (regulations) coming from the state.

“We’d like our rate to be 100 percent, but certainly we’d love to be closer to 95 percent.”

Hope-Jackson isn’t the only superintendent to express concern about how the state measures graduation.

When the state made changes last year to how it calculated graduation rates, Ypsilanti Superintendent James Hawkins said the rate needs to take a look at students who need an extra year in to graduate.

This year, the state released a graduation rate for the class of 2007 that included the five-year rate.

In Ypsilanti’s case, the five-year rate was 69.9 percent. That’s an improvement of 3.1 percentage points from its four-year rate.

Countywide, an additional 2 percent of students graduate in five years, Norman said.

David Jesse covers K-12 education for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at 734-623-2534 or davidjesse@annarbor.com.