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Graduation

Grad Rate What-If

How many students is one point of your graduation rate, and what if a few more graduate?

Your cohort

Example cohort. Change any number to use your own.

Entered 9th grade for the first time, four years ago.

students

Joined the cohort any time in the four years.

students

Documented transfers to a diploma program, plus students who emigrated or died. Dropouts and GED leavers stay in.

students

Earned a regular diploma within four years.

students

Four-year rate

4students in one point
395students in the adjusted cohort
83did not graduate in four years

For context, the U.S. rate was about 87% (2021-22, NCES).

Next step

How this works

This is the adjusted cohort graduation rate, the federal four-year measure. Start with students who entered 9th grade for the first time four years ago, add students who transferred in, and subtract students who left with documentation: a transfer to another program that grants a regular diploma, emigration, or death. That is the adjusted cohort. The rate is the students who earned a regular diploma within four years, divided by that cohort.

  • Dropouts, GED leavers, and students who leave without paperwork stay in the cohort as non-graduates. Clean transfer records are part of the rate.
  • One point of the rate is the adjusted cohort divided by 100.
  • The what-if is for a class still in school. A finished cohort's rate is final.
  • Four-year, five-year, and extended-year rates all exist. When someone quotes a graduation rate, ask which one.
  • Freshman on-track status and 9th grade GPA are among the strongest early predictors of graduating (Allensworth and Easton, 2007).

Sources: 34 CFR 200.19 (the federal definition); NCES Digest of Education Statistics, Table 219.46, for the 2021-22 national rate.

Keep going

Freshman On-Track CheckIs this 9th grader on track to finish freshman year ready for 10th grade? Absenteeism Goal PacerIs your school on pace to reach its chronic absence goal? Support Needs EstimatorWhich warning signs does this student show, and where should support start?