Graduation rate and Maryland schools
Education Week has put out its annual ranking of school system graduation rates today and the news is both good and bad for school systems around the region. Of the top 50 largest school districts throughout the country, Baltimore City is the sixth from the bottom with a graduation rate of 44.6 percent in 2006. Baltimore County, which has a graduation rate of 78.6 percent, is ranked fifth and Anne Arundel is eighth with a rate of 70.2 percent.
This might be rather depressing news for the city except for the fact that the way in which Education Week has calculated its rate is believed to be somewhat flawed, even by its own admission.
Ed Week does its best using the only data available for school systems across the nation, but it cannot actually track students. Rather, the graduation rate is an estimate based on the numbers of students who are in each grade that year in the district. So the rate does not take into account the students who graduate in five years nor does it try to compensate for what is known as the ninth-grade bulge. Many ninth-graders in the city don't pass all their classes and spend an extra half-year classified as a ninth-grader although they technically have nearly enough credits to be a 10th-grader.
In other words, the ninth grade looks larger than it really is and the number who eventually graduate is smaller than it should be.
So the Education Week researchers acknowledge that there may be a 14-point discrepancy in the true graduation rate and what they report.
In fact, the city schools say they graduated 62.6 percent of students.
We won't really have a true accounting of graduation rates for several years until a process is fully in place to track students.
But if Baltimore County's rate is actually as shown, that is good news for county residents. And Montgomery County tied for first place in the rankings.
The state as a whole had a graduation rate of about 73 percent, only slightly above the national average.
Baltimoresun.com's 
Comments
Do you know that one only needs a 1.0/D average to graduate HS in MD?
Yes they have to pass the HSA but if they don't they can take the Bridge which is a real joke, it is really almost impossible to fail unless you want to.
So what does that say about it all?
Posted by: Clint Sterling | June 10, 2009 8:46 AM
If I had to choose which figures are wrong .... easily it would be the Baltimore City School System's numbers. I based this on the historical lies of the Baltimore City Government (Officials) and the Baltimore City School System with statistical figures. I find it difficult to believe that 66% of the students in the Baltimore City School System graduate. And, most of them are "pushed" through. Sad, but true.
Posted by: Dave | June 10, 2009 9:08 AM
Dave.
Here is the big shocker, EVERY SCHOOL SYSTEM FUDGES NUMBERS!
I have worked in many and let me tell you that I have seen grades changed by administrators, kids shuffled away in other classes and everything imaginable done to "get the numbers up".
To single out B'more city and say that "only their numbers are wrong" is completely wrong.
Clint: yes passing is easy, but staying in is hard for some students. Some kids fail out, but many dropout and that is where many large urban school districts fail. Especially when in most urban districts parochial and private schools are far more common-place and combine that with a highly mobile population and you have problems.
Dave, your comment is so uninformed it boggles my mind.
Posted by: James From Hampden | June 10, 2009 11:08 AM
A $175,000.00 position will fix everything. Don't question a thing. Much better that way. Makes one wonder if more positions/salary should be looked into.
Posted by: ryan | June 15, 2009 10:38 AM