News Article - Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

Graduation Rates

To:	Superintendents and Directors of Charter Schools
From:	David P. Driscoll, Commissioner of Education
Date:	September 18, 2006

The Massachusetts Department of Education soon will begin calculating graduation rates using data submitted through the Student Information Management System. We anticipate publicly reporting graduation rates in February 2007. I am informing you now as there are steps you need to take to be sure the rates reported for your district are accurate. An overview document, with information on the formulas to be used and a project timeline, is posted at the following website:
http://www.doe.mass.edu/infoservices/reports/gradrates/ More information will be posted on this website as the project develops. In addition, the Department will offer workshops later in the fall to assist districts in understanding the methodology and process. Starting in mid-November, districts will have about a month to review four years of student-level data for the 2006 graduating class on the security portal and request data corrections if necessary. Please note that all of these prior years of data were previously made available to districts for correction, the data set was corrected and was posted as "final." We are offering this additional opportunity to make corrections because we understand the high level of attention the new four-year graduation rate will generate. Please be judicious about the volume and scope of requests for corrections to these data that was already vetted at least once previously. Graduation rates will not be calculated until the data review and correction process is completed. If you have any questions, please send an email to graduationrates@doe.mass.edu.

Last Updated: September 18, 2006