Shaker’s Real Graduation Rate

The specific results for Shaker Heights from the Diplomas Count report (described yesterday) show that 68.1% of students graduate.  This is completely and shockingly different from the most recently reported graduation rate of 95.7% from the ODE Report Card for Shaker.  The report shows that of the students who don’t make it to graduation, most (55.9%) are lost in the promotion from 9th grade to 10th grade. 

This approach seems to be a more meaningful and useful way to evaluate the effectiveness of a high school than does calculating the number of 12th grade students who graduate.  If you never get out of 9th grade you are certainly not going to be graduating.  Worse than that, one could speculate that kids who don’t get promoted from 9th to 10th grade are going to have a pretty hard time surviving and becoming productive members of society.  

And this is in Shaker Heights – perceived as one of the best school districts in the area.