Five years after former DC Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee arrived on a wave of national publicity and made headlines by firing hundreds of teachers and offering triple-digit financial incentives to the good ones who remained, D.C. has the worst state high school graduation rate in the nation. Despite having spent their entire high school careers in the Rhee-formed system, only 59 percent of the class of 2011 earned a diploma within four years, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

That 59 percent rate is much lower than the 73 percent that DCPS reported in 2010, and it’s also more accurate. Last year, the Education Department adopted a standard metric for all states that tracks students all the way from ninth to 12th grades. Under the new rubric, the graduation rate is 87 percent in affluent Montgomery County, 85 percent in Fairfax County and 76 percent in Prince George’s County.