graduation

By Diane McMillan
MASSP Associate Director

The 2006-2007 graduation rates will be calculated by tracking individual students who first enrolled in ninth grade in fall 2003, and graduated four years later with a regular diploma. Continuing students who were not reported as diploma recipients were recorded for accountability purposes as “off-track.”

Students can miss class but still pass
Attendance to affect grades less
BY LORI HIGGINS • FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER • JUNE 25, 2008
School districts across Michigan are increasingly altering long-standing rules that tie students' grades to how often they come to class.
The changes are prompted by a state policy that now allows students to test out of a class. But critics say the relaxed attendance policies risk sending the message to impressionable teens that getting to class isn't important.

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From the Battle Creek Inquirer

By REBECCA ROCHO • June 11, 2008

By Diane McMillan
Associate Director

High schools are not the only ones who have to deal with “graduation” issues. Middle schools are also under pressure to have some sort of “ending” ceremony or process for 8th graders who are on their way to high school. There is debate in the middle level educator community about what kind of transition activities are appropriate for 8th grade students.

Finding ways to fix Michigan’s dropout crisis is the focus of public hearings that began May 8 as part of a statewide initiative to increase the number of high school graduates to stabilize a weak economy.

Graduation rates questioned
State works to recalculate how students are counted
By BOBBY AMPEZZAN
Times Herald
Across the Blue Water Area, more than 90% of students are graduating from high school -- a nice number that may be about to plummet this year.
For years, the state has estimated graduation rates by comparing the number of graduates against the number of students who enrolled in the fall. The result is a percentage that doesn't accurately reflect how many kids are dropping out, some officials said.

This week's national report showing Detroit had the lowest graduation rate among major cities does raise some concerns about the performance of Michigan's largest city and other urban school districts, but it is also subject to the argument that it is not, currently, valid to compare dropout and graduation rates state to state.