Charter Sector Graduation Rate Continues to Exceed State Average

Graduation rates are the number of students graduating from high school in four years (even though some graduates take longer). The four-year rate for this past 2017-18 academic year for public charter school students was 72.4%, a slight drop of 1.0% - from 73.4%.  (The graduation rate for the state, which includes both public charter schools and DCPS, dropped 3.9 percentage points to 68.5% this year.)

Adding in the percentage of students who graduated in five years brings the five-year graduation rate of public charter schools up to 80.9%  Unfortunately, we can’t compare this with DCPS and statewide rates as these are not being released.

More Hispanic and English Learners Graduate
The graduation rate for all students shows similar trends as last year. Roughly 85% of the graduates in public charter schools are African American students, and although the graduation rate declined by 2.2% percentage points, this year’s rate of 70.4% exceeded the graduation rate of all students citywide, and the national rate for Black students.  Also notable is the graduation rate for English learners (ELs) at public charter schools, who outpaced the state rate at 75.8%, a 5.0 percentage point increase from SY 2016-17.
 

Thousands of Students Graduate  
1,053 public charter school students graduated in SY 2017-18. Five public charter high schools had graduation rate increases in the 2017-18 school year: Paul Public Charter International High School (87.7%); Richard Wright PCS for Journalism and Media Arts (83.0%); KIPP DC College Preparatory Academy (85.1%); Cesar Chavez PCS for Public Policy - Parkside High School (86.2%); SEED PCS of Washington, DC (100%). Also, Somerset Prep DC PCS graduated its first class of students in 2018, with a graduation rate of 88.5%. And Washington Mathematics Science Technology PCHS rate improved to 80.8% in its final year of operation.

Two schools had a 100% graduation rate: The SEED PCS of Washington, DC for the first time; and BASIS DC PCS for the second consecutive year.  
 

Alternative high schools are designed to meet the needs of students who have been unsuccessful at traditional high schools. Nearly all the students are overage and uncredited.

*The overall public charter school graduation rate includes results for low-performing schools that DC PCSB closed years ago.  

School Quality Reports Measure BotBoth 4 and 5-year Graduation Rates
As mentioned, we also continue to see an increase in the number of students graduating in five years.  Finishing high school prepared is more important than finishing within four years. Every public charter high school is evaluated on our School Quality Report on the number of students who graduate in four or five years. DC PCSB reports the  4-year and 5-year Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rates (ACGRs) for the same cohort of students on the school quality reports.  Thereby, both measures reflect the school’s work with the same cohort of students over time. This year’s cohort reflects students who were ninth graders in 2013-2014 school year.
 

*Based on SY 2016-17 graduation data

Five-Year Graduation Rate
Often many students need an additional year to earn course credits and to prepare for college or the workforce. The five-year graduation rate increased to 80.9%, up from 78.8% last year. Below are the five-year graduation rates by school, as published on the 2018 HS PMF: In some cases, the five-year rate is lower than the four-year rate. This is because two different cohorts of students are being measured. The 4-year ACGR rate is the percentage of students who started high school in 2014-15 and graduated within 4 years. The 5-year ACGR rate is the percentage of all of the students who started high school in 2013-14 and have graduated since then, either in 4 or 5 years.
 

As mentioned previously, alternative high schools are designed to meet the needs of students who have been unsuccessful at traditional high schools. Nearly all the students are overage and uncredited. The rates below, verified by OSSE, may differ from the rates reported on the Alternative Accountability Framework (AAF) based on the charter goals for each LEA (such as earning credit for students receiving IEP certificates of completion).

Graduation rates are the number of students graduating from high school in four years (even though some graduates take longer). The four-year rate for this past 2017-18 academic year for public charter school students was 72.4%, a slight drop of 1.0% - from 73.4%.