The Hermiston School District got a double dose of good news today when a new report showed the graduation rate among district students exceeds the state average, while the drop-out rate was below the state average.
According to the Oregon Department of Education, the graduation data looks at the students who entered high school as ninth graders in 2009-10 and then graduated with a regular high school diploma within four years. Data for 2012-13 shows the state holds a 68.66 percent four-year graduation rate for the 2009-10 class of students. Hermiston School District holds a 69.87 percent rating, while Hermiston High School reports an 84.28 graduation rate.
The results are further broken down by subgroups, which show the district boasts the fifth highest four-year Hispanic student completer rate at 78.13among districts with sizable Hispanic populations. Similarly, HSD holds the second highest five-year completer rate in the state. Also of note, Hermiston School District exceeded the state graduation rate by 5 percent for Caucasian students and 5.5 percent for “economically disadvantaged” students.
“We are pleased to see the improvement in our graduation cohort rate,” said Hermiston High School Principal Jocelyn Jones. “Our continued efforts toward meeting our building and district strategic plan goals are no doubt contributing to this improvement.”
The cohort graduation rate is calculated by taking the number of students in the group who graduated with a regular diploma within four years and dividing that by the total number of students who entered high school for that cohort, in this case 2009-10. The figure is adjusted for students who move into or out of the system. Because some students need more than four years to complete graduation requirements, the Oregon Department of Education also calculates five-year graduation and completion rates.
HSD’s five-year completer rate, which includes students earning a GED, modified diploma, or other certificate, was 87.93 for the 2008-09 cohort, and the rate for Hermiston High School was 90.94. The state rate was 81.52 for this student cohort.
The state’s report also includes drop-out rate statistics for 2012-13. The report indicated Hermiston School District has a 2.53 percent dropout rate, compared to the state’s 3.98 percent. Hermiston High School exhibits a 0.57 dropout rate. The Oregon Department of Education tracks graduation based on four and five year cohorts of students; however, the federal government requires states to report a one-year dropout rate, which is calculated by looking at the number of students who drop out (grades 9-12) in a given school year. This means the dropout rate is not the inverse of the graduation rate. Students who receive GEDs, modified diplomas, etc., are not considered either graduates or dropouts, but they are included in the four and five-year completer rates mentioned above.
