Iowa’s four-year high school graduation rate has been reported higher than the actual rate for the last decade because of an error in the calculation code used by the Iowa Department of Education.
A review of the code found an error that has been used for at least 10 years to determine the state’s four- and five-year graduation rates, according to a Friday news release from the Iowa Department of Education.
Correcting the error dropped many area school districts’ 2022 graduation rates by several percentage points. The Cedar Rapids Community School District 2022 graduation rate, for example, was originally reported as 80.3 percent, but has been corrected to 76.8 percent.
Adam Zimmermann, executive director of innovation for Cedar Rapids schools, said the corrected graduation rate doesn’t change the work the district is doing around implementing college and career readiness programs in their schools beginning by the 2025-26 school year.
“When kids can find a passion and have opportunities to go deep into those passions, they come to school more, their academic achievement goes up and graduation rates go up and ultimately, their potential career earnings go up,” Zimmermann said.
In the fall, the Cedar Rapids school board approved a strategic plan that included a goal of increasing the district’s graduation rate 10 percent by June 2027. That’s still the goal, Zimmermann said.
Zimmermann said the district has known they need to improve graduation rates. “We did see a 1.8 percent gain over the last two years. We’re grateful for that, and we also know there’s an urgent need for improvement,” he said.
The calculation error occurred because students who transferred between school districts and later dropped out were erroneously removed from the database rather than included as non-graduates, the Department of Education’s Information and Analysis Services team discovered.
The error has now been corrected.
The graduation rate for Iowa’s class of 2023 is 87.5 percent, which is a decline from the graduation rate reported in previous years because of the error. The department reports the graduation rate is consistent with the national standard.
The 2023 graduation rate for the Cedar Rapids Community School District is 10 percentage points lower than the state average at 77.5 percent.
Iowa school leaders were informed of the error before the release of the corrected graduation rates Friday at 10 a.m. Some other area school districts’ 2022 corrected four-year graduation rates are:
A Flourish scatter chart
Doug Wheeler, superintendent of the College Community School District, said graduation rates are a “key indicator” of what programs school districts need to invest in to better engage students in learning.
For example, the district launched agriculture and nursing pathways over the last two years to help students connect learning to real-world experiences and careers.
“Our goal is always a 100 percent graduation rate. Until we get to that point, we’re going to continue to work on how we can create programs to keep kids in school,” Wheeler said.
“I’m disappointed with the mistake. I appreciate the transparency,” Wheeler said.
One thing that for years has negatively impacted Iowa four-year graduation rates is the handful of students in special education who earned their diploma but take advantage of the additional services offered to them in high school until they turn 21, Wheeler said. Those students are not counted in the four-year graduation rate, he said.
“That pushes down our graduation rate by 1 to 2 percent,” Wheeler said. “We really value this program, we think it’s good for students. It’s not only their right, but we think it’s a valuable service to do everything we can to set them up for success. The concern I have is it artificially pushes that graduation rate down.”
School leaders in the Linn-Mar Community School District are reviewing the corrected data to “ensure our programs and systems continue to provide a healthy range of support for our students,” spokeswoman Renee Nelson said in an email to The Gazette.
“Student achievement is important to our district, and we track several sets of data to ensure all our students receive the support they need to become successful adults. While Linn-Mar four- and five- year high school graduation rates are important measures of student success, we also rely on other leading indicators to make sure students receive the programmatic support they need up to graduation,” Nelson said.
Jay Pennington, Bureau Chief Information and Analysis Services at the Iowa Department of Education, said calculating graduation rates is a complex process that requires examining four years of student data.
It “includes taking into account multiple change events, such as when students move between districts or initially drop out, but choose to re-enroll at a later date,” Pennington said. “Upon a fresh review of the legacy code that had been used to calculate prior graduation rates, we identified that the code had not properly sequenced certain events.”
“Specifically, students who transferred between districts and later dropped out were removed when they should have been kept in the cohort,” Pennington said.
Iowa’s corrected four-year graduation rates for the graduating classes of 2021 and 2022 dropped slightly from what was originally reported. The corrected four-year graduation rate for the class of 2022 is 87.4 percent, down 2.5 percentage points from the 89.9 percent rate that was announced last spring. The graduating class of 2021’s corrected graduation rate is 87.8 percent, down 2.4 percentage points from the reported rate of 90.2 percent.
Iowa’s corrected five-year graduation rate — which reflects students who were part of a graduating class but took an extra year to finish high school — was 89.7 percent for the class of 2022, and 90.1 percent for the class of 2021. The five-year graduation rate for the class of 2023 will be available in the spring of 2025.
Iowa’s annual dropout rate was not impacted by the code error. The dropout rate reflects the percent of students in grades 9-12 who dropped out of school during a single year. The annual dropout rate was 3.02 percent for the 2022-23 school year, which represents 4,718 students. This is down slightly from the 3.04 percent annual dropout rate for the 2021-23 school year.
“The department is committed to empowering Iowans with accurate, actionable information on education outcomes,” Iowa Department of Education Director McKenzie Snow said in the release. “Focused on transparency, the department identified, corrected and communicated the error in the underlying code, and its impact on previously reported graduation rates. The department immediately instituted additional quality assurance measures and, moving forward, is modernizing its data verification procedures.”
Iowa’s neighboring states reported similar graduation rates, with only Missouri and Wisconsin reporting class of 2023 graduation rates “meaningfully” above Iowa’s, at 89.9 percent and 90.5 percent, respectfully, according to the department.
Neighboring states’ class of 2023 graduation rates are:
Corrected rates for the graduating classes of 2021, 2022 and 2023 — including rates by school district and student group — are available online at educate.iowa.gov.
www.thegazette.com
A review of the code found an error that has been used for at least 10 years to determine the state’s four- and five-year graduation rates, according to a Friday news release from the Iowa Department of Education.
Correcting the error dropped many area school districts’ 2022 graduation rates by several percentage points. The Cedar Rapids Community School District 2022 graduation rate, for example, was originally reported as 80.3 percent, but has been corrected to 76.8 percent.
Adam Zimmermann, executive director of innovation for Cedar Rapids schools, said the corrected graduation rate doesn’t change the work the district is doing around implementing college and career readiness programs in their schools beginning by the 2025-26 school year.
“When kids can find a passion and have opportunities to go deep into those passions, they come to school more, their academic achievement goes up and graduation rates go up and ultimately, their potential career earnings go up,” Zimmermann said.
In the fall, the Cedar Rapids school board approved a strategic plan that included a goal of increasing the district’s graduation rate 10 percent by June 2027. That’s still the goal, Zimmermann said.
Zimmermann said the district has known they need to improve graduation rates. “We did see a 1.8 percent gain over the last two years. We’re grateful for that, and we also know there’s an urgent need for improvement,” he said.
Code mistakenly removed transfer students who dropped out
The calculation error occurred because students who transferred between school districts and later dropped out were erroneously removed from the database rather than included as non-graduates, the Department of Education’s Information and Analysis Services team discovered.
The error has now been corrected.
The graduation rate for Iowa’s class of 2023 is 87.5 percent, which is a decline from the graduation rate reported in previous years because of the error. The department reports the graduation rate is consistent with the national standard.
The 2023 graduation rate for the Cedar Rapids Community School District is 10 percentage points lower than the state average at 77.5 percent.
Iowa school leaders were informed of the error before the release of the corrected graduation rates Friday at 10 a.m. Some other area school districts’ 2022 corrected four-year graduation rates are:
- College Community School District’s 2022 graduation rate was 92.3 percent, corrected to 89.4 percent. The 2023 graduation rate is 88.2 percent.
- Linn-Mar Community School District’s 2022 graduation rate was 96.1 percent, corrected to 90.7. The 2023 graduation rate is 91.7 percent.
- Iowa City Community School District’s 2022 graduation rate was 92.6 percent, corrected to 91.3. The 2023 graduation rate is 92 percent.
A Flourish scatter chartSuperintendent: Rates are ‘key indicator’ of where to invest
(Submitted)Doug Wheeler, superintendent of the College Community School District, said graduation rates are a “key indicator” of what programs school districts need to invest in to better engage students in learning.
For example, the district launched agriculture and nursing pathways over the last two years to help students connect learning to real-world experiences and careers.
“Our goal is always a 100 percent graduation rate. Until we get to that point, we’re going to continue to work on how we can create programs to keep kids in school,” Wheeler said.
“I’m disappointed with the mistake. I appreciate the transparency,” Wheeler said.
One thing that for years has negatively impacted Iowa four-year graduation rates is the handful of students in special education who earned their diploma but take advantage of the additional services offered to them in high school until they turn 21, Wheeler said. Those students are not counted in the four-year graduation rate, he said.
“That pushes down our graduation rate by 1 to 2 percent,” Wheeler said. “We really value this program, we think it’s good for students. It’s not only their right, but we think it’s a valuable service to do everything we can to set them up for success. The concern I have is it artificially pushes that graduation rate down.”
School leaders in the Linn-Mar Community School District are reviewing the corrected data to “ensure our programs and systems continue to provide a healthy range of support for our students,” spokeswoman Renee Nelson said in an email to The Gazette.
“Student achievement is important to our district, and we track several sets of data to ensure all our students receive the support they need to become successful adults. While Linn-Mar four- and five- year high school graduation rates are important measures of student success, we also rely on other leading indicators to make sure students receive the programmatic support they need up to graduation,” Nelson said.
State: Grad rate calculations are complex process
Jay Pennington, Bureau Chief Information and Analysis Services at the Iowa Department of Education, said calculating graduation rates is a complex process that requires examining four years of student data.
It “includes taking into account multiple change events, such as when students move between districts or initially drop out, but choose to re-enroll at a later date,” Pennington said. “Upon a fresh review of the legacy code that had been used to calculate prior graduation rates, we identified that the code had not properly sequenced certain events.”
“Specifically, students who transferred between districts and later dropped out were removed when they should have been kept in the cohort,” Pennington said.
Iowa’s corrected four-year graduation rates for the graduating classes of 2021 and 2022 dropped slightly from what was originally reported. The corrected four-year graduation rate for the class of 2022 is 87.4 percent, down 2.5 percentage points from the 89.9 percent rate that was announced last spring. The graduating class of 2021’s corrected graduation rate is 87.8 percent, down 2.4 percentage points from the reported rate of 90.2 percent.
Iowa’s corrected five-year graduation rate — which reflects students who were part of a graduating class but took an extra year to finish high school — was 89.7 percent for the class of 2022, and 90.1 percent for the class of 2021. The five-year graduation rate for the class of 2023 will be available in the spring of 2025.
Iowa’s annual dropout rate was not impacted by the code error. The dropout rate reflects the percent of students in grades 9-12 who dropped out of school during a single year. The annual dropout rate was 3.02 percent for the 2022-23 school year, which represents 4,718 students. This is down slightly from the 3.04 percent annual dropout rate for the 2021-23 school year.
“The department is committed to empowering Iowans with accurate, actionable information on education outcomes,” Iowa Department of Education Director McKenzie Snow said in the release. “Focused on transparency, the department identified, corrected and communicated the error in the underlying code, and its impact on previously reported graduation rates. The department immediately instituted additional quality assurance measures and, moving forward, is modernizing its data verification procedures.”
Iowa’s neighboring states reported similar graduation rates, with only Missouri and Wisconsin reporting class of 2023 graduation rates “meaningfully” above Iowa’s, at 89.9 percent and 90.5 percent, respectfully, according to the department.
Neighboring states’ class of 2023 graduation rates are:
- Wisconsin: 90.5 percent
- Missouri: 89.9 percent
- Illinois: 87.6 percent
- Nebraska: 87.2 percent
- South Dakota: 84.1 percent
- Minnesota: 83.3 percent
Corrected rates for the graduating classes of 2021, 2022 and 2023 — including rates by school district and student group — are available online at educate.iowa.gov.
Iowa’s graduation rates incorrectly calculated for the last 10 years
Iowa’s four-year high school graduation rate has been reported higher than the actual rate for the last decade because of an error in the calculation code used by the Iowa Department of Education.
www.thegazette.com
