Montgomery County’s high school graduation rate likely will see a significant drop as the state transitions from one calculation method to another backed by the National Governors Association over the next few years.
The Montgomery County Public Schools Web site currently boasts a 91.4 percent graduation rate. But a recent study put out by Education Week magazine praised MCPS for its 80.3 percent graduation rate — 11 percent less than what the county claims. County officials said the discrepancy is due to the use of different formulas that determine the graduation rate. And a third formula — the NGA-approved one — soon will become the standard in Maryland.
“Areawide, everybody’s graduation rate is going to all of a sudden be reported as a bit lower just because of this new way of calculating things,” Montgomery County Council of Parent Teacher Associations President Jane de Winter said.
The county’s 91.4 percent figure comes from the Maryland State Department of Education, which counts students who take more than four years to complete high school as graduating with a regular diploma. The NGA is asking all states to move to a calculation method in which every student who is enrolled in ninth grade in a school must be accounted for at graduation time four years later. Those who take longer than four years to graduate would not be counted as a graduate under this formula.
“There are different assumptions in each of these formulas,” said Laura Steinberg, the MCPS director of reporting and regulatory accountability. “We’re moving toward one in which you literally trace kid for kid from the time a student is in ninth grade.”
