When we wrote our story on Spokane's dropout crisis, we were working off the latest data. But it was a bit old: The class of 2009 was the most recent one available, because it takes the state superintendent's office a long time to compile official statewide data for dropout and graduation rates.
We just had to take Spokane Schools administrators' word that their rate improved last year. Turns out, they were right.
Yesterday, last year's data finally came out. Here's the full report (pdf).
Like the district promised, Spokane School District improved markedly, rising nearly 10 percentage points. Credit new programs and alternative schools, and credit new techniques to ensure students that transferred are counted as transfers instead of dropouts.
Across the state, most extended graduation rates (which includes students who take longer than 4 years to graduate) tended to tick up several percentage points. In Spokane, Rogers (11.1 percentage points), Shadle Park (10.4 percentage points) and Lewis and Clark (10.5) had some of the biggest gains.
"The new drop out percentage is down significantly to less than 20 percent, or one in five students," writes Spokane Schools Spokeswoman Terren Roloff in an email. "This is a result of the school board's dedication over the last couple of years to funding more specialized programs and better tracking of students. With nearly three out of four students from the class of 2010 graduating on time, we can see that our efforts are working. Still, we will continue to work toward our goal of a 100 percent graduation rate across the district."
Most curious, however, is East Valley High School which purportedly had an extended graduation rate of 99.9 percent. Unless that's due to a clerical error, congratulations East Valley.
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Here's that data from local schools and districts, in order of graduation rate. We've also included free and reduced lunch data because you can usually find a correlation: The more students qualifying for free or reduced lunch, the lower the graduation rate.
DISTRICT DATA
1. Central Valley School District
2009-10 extended graduation rate: 88.5 percent
2008-09 extended graduation rate: 82.2 percent
Percent of students low-income enough to qualify for free or reduced lunch: 38.4 percent
2. Mead School District
2009-10 extended graduation rate: 88.4 percent
2008-09 extended graduation rate: 87.6 percent
Percent of students low-income enough to qualify for free or reduced lunch: 27.4 percent
3. Spokane School District
2009-10 extended graduation rate: 73.4 percent
2008-09 extended graduation rate: 62.1 percent
Percent of students low-income enough to qualify for free or reduced lunch: 53.8 percent
SCHOOL DATA
1. East Valley
2009-10 extended graduation rate: 99.9 percent
2008-09 extended graduation rate: 88.5 percent
Percent of students low-income enough to qualify for free or reduced lunch: 39.9 percent
2. Central Valley
2009-10 extended graduation rate: 96.3 percent
2008-09 extended graduation rate: 92 percent
Percent of students low-income enough to qualify for free or reduced lunch: 29.6 percent
3. Mead
2009-10 extended graduation rate: 92 percent
2008-09 extended graduation rate: 91.4 percent
Percent of students low-income enough to qualify for free or reduced lunch: 20.4 percent
4. Shadle Park
2009-10 extended graduation rate: 90 percent
2008-09 extended graduation rate: 79.6 percent
Percent of students low-income enough to qualify for free or reduced lunch: 40.9 percent
5. University
2009-10 extended graduation rate: 89.6 percent
2008-09 extended graduation rate: 88.5 percent
Percent of students low-income enough to qualify for free or reduced lunch: 36.5 percent
6. Mt. Spokane
2009-10 extended graduation rate: 89.5 percent
2008-09 extended graduation rate: 94 percent
Percent of students low-income enough to qualify for free or reduced lunch: 23.4 percent
7. Lewis and Clark
2009-10 extended graduation rate: 85.7 percent
2008-09 extended graduation rate: 75.2 percent
Percent of students low-income enough to qualify for free or reduced lunch: 32.1 percent
8. Ferris
2009-10 extended graduation rate: 85.4 percent
2008-09 extended graduation rate: 83.4 percent
Percent of students low-income enough to qualify for free or reduced lunch: 35.2 percent
9. North Central
2009-10 extended graduation rate: 76 percent
2008-09 extended graduation rate: 70.6 percent
Percent of students low-income enough to qualify for free or reduced lunch: 53.4 percent
10. Rogers
2009-10 extended graduation rate: 64.3 percent
2008-09 extended graduation rate: 53.2 percent
Percent of students low-income enough to qualify for free or reduced lunch: 73.2 percent
11. Havermale (alternative school)
2009-10 extended graduation rate: 27.3 percent
2008-09 extended graduation rate: 27.9 percent
Percent of students low-income enough to qualify for free or reduced lunch: 69.6 percent
