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Abstract:
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In the spring of 2005, the Rocky Mountain News ran a week-long series of articles on dropout and graduation rates in the Denver Public Schools. The series was based on the first comprehensive cohort analysis of high school students in Denver, and computed a graduation rate for minority high school students of 44%, far lower than the rate reported previously by the district to the Colorado Department of Education (CDE). Subsequently, CDE mandated cohort-based reporting of graduation rates. Complex issues remain in the computation of graduation and dropout rates, as non-negligible numbers of students transfer in and out of high schools, are retained in grade or remain in school for a fifth or sixth year before graduating, or leave school involuntarily. This presentation compares the results of precise panel tracking systems with simpler methods of estimation based on cohort membership over time.
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