Graduation rates above state average

By Gracie Hart
Review Staff Writer

Published: November 6, 2008

Last spring, 85.4 percent of students in the Orange County High School class of 2008 graduated with a diploma on time according to the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE), slightly higher than the state average.
This rate, as well as the rates of the commonwealth, other school divisions and other high schools was determined by tracking individual students from year to year using the commonwealth’s longitudinal student data system.  This is the first time that this method has been used and is known as the Virginia On-Time Graduation Rate.
According to VDOE, unlike estimated rates based on comparisons of graduates with ninth-grade enrollment four years earlier, the Virginia On-time Graduation Rate is an actual rate that takes into consideration student mobility, changes in enrollment, and promotion and retention policies and decisions. The new formula also recognizes that some students, those with disabilities and English-language learners, are allowed more than the standard four years to earn a diploma while still being counted as “on-time” graduates.
The rate is calculated by dividing the number of students earning a diploma in 2008 by the number of students who entered the ninth-grade for the first time in 2004-2005 (plus transfers in, minus transfers out).
According to Virginia Superintendent of Public Instruction Patricia I. Wright, the On-time Graduation Rate is more accurate than the previous rate.
“Effective programs to improve outcomes for students are driven by accurate data,“ she said. “With the Virginia On-Time Graduation Rate, we are replacing estimates with hard information that will shape local and statewide strategies to increase the likelihood that young people graduate with a diploma.“
According to VDOE, on-time graduating students are those that earn one of five Board of Education-recognized diplomas - the Advanced Studies Diploma, the Standard Diploma, the Modified Standard Diploma, the Special Diploma or the General Achievement Diploma - within four years of the first time that he or she entered ninth grade.
“Virginia has developed a statewide method for saying this is how it’s going to be measured.  The old rate had some holes in it,“ Orange County Schools Superintendent Dr. William Crawford said.  “The new rate is the state’s attempt to standardize how it’s calculated.“
In Orange County, the cohort, or number of students who entered ninth grade for the first time in 2004-2005, was 412 students.  Out of those 412, 175 received advanced studies diplomas four years later, 152 received standard diplomas and 16 received modified standard diplomas for an on-time graduation rate of 85.4 percent.  This is higher than the state on-time graduation rate, which is 81.3 percent.
It is important to note that the On-time Graduation Rate is not the inverse of the drop-out rate.  Dr. Wright cautions that thousands of students who entered the ninth grade in 2004 remain in school and continue to work toward finishing their diploma requirements.  Other students completed high school with a GED or a locally awarded certificate of completion.
“The score has changed [due to the new rate] but there has been no large change in the number of students graduating,“ Crawford said.  “We are always looking at things to improve the rate, [including] giving tutorials to those who are behind.“
According to Crawford, Orange County schools strive to get as many students to graduate as possible.
“If they graduate-they are less likely to end up in prison, etc,“ he said.
Orange County High School Principal Gene Kotulka explains that the school is committed to ensuring that students graduate and they look at each student individually to assess their needs.
“We identify every student who will be seniors in May of their junior year and sit down with them and handwrite their schedules with them,“ he said.  “We then place them in a program [to help them graduate].“
According to Kotulka, the school also looks at ninth and tenth graders who are behind and try to find a way to help them get on track.  If they are too far behind, the school tries to get them in a GED program.
“Identifying each child’s individual needs helps to increase our graduation rates,“ he said.
The Virginia Department of Education will release cohort dropout rates for schools, school divisions and the state early 2009.