Fewer high school seniors enrolled in D.C. Public Schools are expected to graduate in June after a probe last year revealed one third of public school graduates received a diploma in 2017 without meeting the city’s attendance requirements.
Only 42 percent of seniors attending public schools were on track to graduate in 2018, compared to 73 percent in 2017, according to a report released by DCPS Thursday.
But the document, the first mid-year data published by DCPS, states more students may graduate in June and August if they complete their current courses or take make-up classes. The figures also don’t take into account children who withdrew or transferred from the school system.
In the wake of the graduation investigation, DCPS said it would enforce an attendance policy that stipulates students who miss class more than 30 times a year be given a failing grade, according to the Washington Post.
D.C. Public Schools Interim Chancellor Amanda Alexander told the city council’s Committee on Education Thursday the school system would be conducting one-one-one meetings with the families of seniors not due to graduate to offer support, in addition to rolling out a training program for school leaders, teachers, and counselors on grading, credit recovery, and attendance.
The U.S. Department of Education measures graduation rates this year by calculating the percentage of students who started ninth grade in 2014 and graduate within four years.
The decline in graduations reverses an upward trend in D.C., which had a graduation rate of 59 percent in 2011 when the Education Department’s standard measurement was introduced.
