Richmond Graduation Rate: 52.5 %

SCHOOL DISTRICT GRADUATION REPORT

RICHMOND CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS RICHMOND, VA

Demographic Profile RICHMOND CITY PBLC SCHS National Average SCHOOL SYSTEM — VITAL STATS Students 23,177 3,546 Schools 54 7 Locale Urban 38% of students attend suburban schools STUDENT POPULATION Race/Ethnicity American Indian/Alaska Native 0.1% 1.3% Asian/Pacific Islander 0.7% 5.1% Hispanic 4.7% 21.5% Black (not Hispanic) 86.7% 17.0% White (not Hispanic) 7.8% 55.1% Poverty (Free or Reduced Lunch Eligibility) 66.4% 44.1% English-Language Learners 3.2% 9.2% Special Education 19.7% 12.4%

Graduation Analysis RICHMOND CITY PBLC SCHS National Average Graduation Rate for All Students, Class of 2009 52.5% 73.4% District Performance Score Captures the district's graduation performance relative to other school systems with similar characteristics. A score of 100 point indicates that the district's graduation rate is exactly as would be expected, based on its size, student composition, and other characteristics. Districts with scores greater than 100 points are outperforming expectations. 94.1 points 100 points Ten-Year Trend 2009 52.5% 73.4% 2008 43.7% 71.7% 2007 42.1% 68.8% 2006 47.3% 69.2% 2005 54.7% 70.6% 2004 51.4% 70.0% 2003 46.9% 69.7% 2002 46.5% 69.3% 2001 55.8% 68.0% 2000 72.8% 66.8% 1999 46.8% 66.0% Change over time, 1999 to 2009 (percentage points) +5.7 +7.3 Graduation Pipeline, Class of 2009 Where are students lost? Percent of students lost by grade Details may not sum to 100% due to rounding. 9th grade 46.3% 30.0% 10th grade 8.4% 26.6% 11th grade 18.7% 16.7% 12th grade 26.6% 26.6% Note: — Indicates that data are not available or not applicable.

How Does the EPE RC Calculate Graduation Rates?

The Cumulative Promotion Index (CPI) The Editorial Projects in Education Research Center uses the Cumulative Promotion Index (CPI) method to calculate graduation rates. The CPI represents the high school experience as a process rather than a single event, capturing the four key steps a student must take in order to graduate: three grade-to-grade promotions (9 to 10, 10 to 11, and 11 to 12) and ultimately earning a diploma (grade 12 to graduation). Each of these individual components corresponds to a grade-promotion ratio. The equation below illustrates the CPI formula for calculating graduation rates. The class of 2008-09, the most recent year of data available, is used as an example. CPI = 10th graders, fall 2009 X 11th graders, fall 2009 X 12th graders, fall 2009 X Diploma recipients, spring 2009 9th graders, fall 2008 10th graders, fall 2008 11th graders, fall 2008 12th graders, fall 2008 Multiplying the four grade-specific promotion ratios together produces the graduation rate, the percent of public school 9th graders who will complete high school on time with a regular diploma. The CPI counts only students receiving standard high school diplomas as graduates, following the definition of a graduate established by the No Child Left Behind Act. We can use a simplified example to further demonstrate how the center calculates the CPI. Let us suppose that a particular school district currently has 100 students enrolled in each grade from 9 through 12. We will also assume that 5 percent of students currently in grades 9, 10, and 11 will drop out of school this year and that 5 percent of seniors will fail to earn a diploma at the end of the year. So, for example, we would count 100 9th graders at our starting point but only 95 10th graders the following fall. CPI = 95 X 95 X 95 X 95 = 0.815 100 100 100 100 Carrying out the calculation (shown above), we arrive at a graduation rate of 81.5 percent for this district. Given conditions in this hypothetical district (an effective 5 percent annual attrition rate for students at each grade level), only about 82 out of every 100 9th graders would be expected to finish high school with a diploma. The CPI can be calculated for public school districts that have students enrolled in the secondary grades (9 through 12). State and national statistics are generated by aggregating the district-level data upward. Notes on the Methodology The EPE Research Center calculates graduation rates using data from the Common Core of Data (CCD), an annual census of public schools and school districts in the United States conducted by the U.S. Department of Education. Detailed methodological descriptions of the CCD can be found in technical documentation published by the National Center for Education Statistics (available online at nces.ed.gov/ccd). For the 2008-09 school year, diploma counts for all students or student subgroups were not available from the CCD for California, Nevada, and Vermont. In these instances, the EPE Research Center obtained those data directly from the respective state education agencies where available. The center also used agency-reported enrollment data from the District of Columbia and Ohio. The center's goal is to provide a direct measure of the graduation rate for each of the roughly 11,000 school districts in the nation that enroll high school students. It was possible to do this for districts serving the vast majority (96 percent) of all public school students nationwide. But in a small number of cases—for example, if a particular piece of information needed to calculate the CPI indicator was missing—the center could not directly compute the graduation rate. To avoid the unintentional disclosure of information about individual students, the EPE Research Center does not report results for very small demographic subgroups, those with fewer than five students in a given category. Additional procedures are employed to ensure that results are only reported in situations where sufficient data are available for a reliable calculation.

Editorial Projects in Education Research Center | www.edweek.org/rc

Copyright © 2012 by Editorial Projects in Education Inc. All rights reserved.