UC Berkeley

The 2001 No Child Left Behind Act required states to report graduation rates as a condition of high school accountability for receipt and use of federal Title I funds, and to set growth targets that would ensure all students graduate from high school. It also reaffirmed the long-standing national policy that graduation rates be used as the indicator of high school quality and effectiveness. However, the method used by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to calculate graduation rates has generated multiple claims from some researchers that the graduation rates reported by NCES are inflated for all groups and exceptionally exaggerated for students of color. Understanding, interpreting and effectively using graduation rate data is politically and educationally challenging for all stakeholders, but most challenging for superintendents of local school districts. These education leaders must make wise and effective decisions about institutional and educational improvements to increase graduation rates as a part of mandated state and federal accountability and improvement goals.

This study reviews the literature on methods used to calculate graduation rates and uses California open source data to examine the results of two frequently used and discussed methods. The goal of this study is to: 1) provide superintendents with additional information and knowledge about how graduation rates are calculated, or more importantly, miscalculated; 2) identify common problems with the data; 3) contribute to a discussion on how superintendents may best use the data; and 4) consider implications for decision making that may help them meet the challenges of improving or increasing graduation rates in their districts.