Graduation rates are rising throughout the Washington area as schools adjust to a more rigorous method of calculating the number of caps thrown in the air each June. Fairfax County Public Schools topped the suburbs for “on-time graduation,” a figure that starts with schools’ freshman classes and counts the percentage that receives diplomas within four years. Traditionally, schools used a “leaver rate” that measured how many 12th-graders finish the year. But under requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, more states are moving to the new “cohort rate,” seen as a more accurate picture of schools’ success.
In Fairfax, 91.4 percent of students graduated on time, nudging up slightly from last year’s 91.2 percent. Arlington Public Schools’ graduation rate also increased, from 86.9 percent to 87.5 percent, and Alexandria City Public Schools inched up from 78.7 percent to 79.2 percent.
| Pomp and Circumstance | ||||
| Percentage of the class of 2011 that graduated after four years: | ||||
| District | 2010 | 2011 | ||
| Fairfax | 91.2% | 91.4% | ||
| Arlington | 86.9% | 87.5% | ||
| Alexandria | 78.7% | 79.2% | ||
| Montgomery | n/a | 86.2% | ||
| Prince George’s | n/a | 76.2% | ||
| Virginia | 85.5% | 86.6% | ||
| Maryland | n/a | 82% | ||
| Note: This is the first year that Maryland and its counties have switched to the four-year rate. | ||||
Across the commonwealth, the on-time graduation rate rose 1 point to 86.6 percent.
This was the first year that Maryland used the “cohort rate” to describe graduation, and graduating seniors rang in at 82 percent. Under the former calculation method, Maryland’s 87-percent graduation rate was the highest in the state’s history. The District of Columbia expects to release graduation figures later this month.
In Prince George’s County Public Schools, the on-time rate was 76.2 percent.
Fairfax’s across-the-Potomac rival Montgomery posted a rate of 86.2 percent. School officials noted that under the former methodology, the rate would have been 90.7 percent, up from 90 percent in 2010, and the highest rate since 2006.
“However you calculate the graduation rate, Montgomery County is doing well and is outperforming public schools across the state,” said school board President Christopher Barclay. “However, we will not be satisfied until every student in our schools is graduating on time and ready for college and the careers of the 21st century.”
Under No Child Left Behind, schools are judged on student scores on standardized state exams and their graduation rates. Many more high schools across both Maryland and Virginia failed to meet “adequate yearly progress” under the new graduation calculations.
Maryland and Virginia have indicated that they will seek waivers from No Child Left Behind’s regulations.
A number of machines have produced different ways of calculating graduation rates. An annual report from Education Week has ranked Montgomery as having the highest graduation rate among large school districts nationwide for three straight years. Fairfax came in second.
Virginia’s “graduation and completion index,” which tracks four-year cohorts but includes GEDs, put Arlington’s Wakefield High School in danger of losing its accreditation when the formula calculated Wakefield’s rate at 77 percent.
