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MNPS Way Ahead of the Curve for Graduation Rates
There's great news for MNPS families! A recent study shows that Tennessee had the biggest rise in graduation rates from 2002-2006, moving from 61% to 72%, while the rest of the nation remained flat! That 11% jump represents around 8,000 more students graduating from high school in 2006 alone. Even better: MNPS students are ahead of the rest of the state with a graduation rate of 72.6% for the 2007-08 school year, up from 57.8% in 2002-03! The study was conducted by the Everyone Graduates Center at Baltimore University. You can see the full results here.
For the last six years, improving the graduation rate has been a district priority. The Graduation Rate provided in this report is for 2007-2008. For No Child Left Behind (NCLB) purposes, however, this rate will be counted in 2008. This delay allows districts to count those general education students who graduate in four years plus a summer and special education and ELL students in five years plus a summer.
The 2008 State Report Card shows a graduation rate of 72.6% for the 2007-2008 school year. This is an increase of 2.6 percentage points from the previous school year, and a gain of almost 15 percentage points in the past five years.
By the state’s NCLB formula, the graduation rate for Metro schools shows an increase of 14.4% over the past four years from 58.2% in 2003-04 to 72.6% in 2007-08. Although the graduation rate is not yet where we want it, our recent improvement is quite impressive for an urban district of more than 75,000 students and a poverty rate of more than 65%. Prior to this four-year increase, the district graduation rate had remained virtually flat for three years at 58%.
The table that follows shows the district graduation rate from 2002-03 through 2007-08.
These bars show the officially reported graduation rate. Beginning in 2003-04, only "on time" graduates with a regular diploma are included. On-time graduates are those students graduating in 4 years (or in 5 years for Special Education students or English Language Learners). There was no time restriction prior to 2003-04.
The table below provides the 2007-08 district graduation rate disaggregated by sex and by race. Results from 2002-03 are shown for comparison.
Graduation Rate
| Subgroups |
2002-03 |
2007-08 |
Difference from
2003-2008 |
| Female |
65.1% |
78.0% |
+12.9% |
| Male |
53.0% |
67.2% |
+14.2% |
| Asian |
63.2% |
79.9% |
+16.7% |
| Black |
54.9% |
72.5% |
+17.6% |
| Hispanic |
43.3% |
57.3% |
+14.0% |
| American Indian |
100.0% |
85.7% |
-14.3% |
| White |
64.4% |
75.4% |
+11.0% |
Click here to read the full report on graduation rate improvements. |
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