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Contact:     Kellye Crockett-Bunch
                   (816) 797-5222

PREP-KC responds to America's Promise Alliance report

Recently several stories have been covered by local media regarding a new report released by America's Promise Alliance citing significantly lower graduation rates for KCMSD and KCKPS than those currently reported on both Kansas' and Missouri's state department of education websites.

Background
· The KC Star reported graduation rates for metro-area school districts using a formula called the Cumulative Promotion Index (CPI). CPI is used by America's Promise Alliance (a national organization) in a recent national report regarding graduation rates. The CPI formula is one of several different methods used to calculate graduation rates.
· CPI formula is a proxy measure of graduation rate. CPI measures the ratios of students who are promoted grade-to-grade to estimate the likelihood a 9th grader will graduate on time based on enrollment data from two years.
· Missouri & Kansas formulas both use a method of determining graduation rates that is used by most states in the nation. MO & KS graduation rates start with first-time 9th graders, totaling dropouts from each of the four years.
· There is a national effort underway to establish a uniform graduation rate formula. The US Department of Education is working to establish a uniform formula for graduation rate that will eliminate the extreme variability that currently exists state to state.


Critical issues
· The MO & KS graduation rate formulas are more reliable and accurate than the CPI method. CPI is used in part because enrollment data is easy for external organizations to access. And yet the fact that the CPI formula shows significantly lower graduate rates is cause for further investigation.

· Graduation rates are only as accurate as the data that is reported - while PREP-KC analysis indicates that the graduation rate formulas are more accurate and reliable than the CPI method, we know that any graduation rate is only as accurate as the data that is reported to the state. The current local and national conversation regarding graduation rates could serve to help tighten reporting mechanisms increasing the accuracy of graduation rate data.

· In the MO & KS formulas a school is not penalized for verified student transfers out (student is verified in another school, not a dropout). In the CPI formula, student transfers out of school are not verified (all transfers appear as dropouts) which artificially lowers the graduation rate. In urban school districts, where higher numbers of students change school districts multiple times in a single school year, a CPI graduation rate will be significantly lower than that reported by MO & KS.

· The CPI formula does not differentiate between first-time 9th graders and repeaters. This results in an overestimate of the number of 9th graders which artificially reduces the graduation rate.

· The recent CPI report worked from 03-04 graduation data. Both KCKPS and KCMSD have made significant improvements in their high school graduation rates in the past three years as they continue to implement the First Things First and Achievement First strategies.

· Graduation rates are one important piece of data but there are other critical indicators of student, school, and district success that must also be a focus of any improvement efforts. There is still tremendous variability in state academic standards and as a result, students can graduate from high school without the skills necessary to succeed in college. The focus of First Things First and Achievement First is on creating and sustaining improvements that support all students in graduating college-ready.

The local and national focus on the graduation rate formula provides a welcome opportunity to engage the Kansas City community in a discussion regarding the importance of accurate and reliable data to track this critical measure of a district's capacity to educate and prepare its young people. 

CPI formula -
2007 graduation rate would be: (# 10th graders, fall 2007/# 9th graders, fall 2006) X (# 11th graders, fall 2007/# 10th graders, fall 2006) X (# 12th graders, fall 2007)/# 11th graders, fall 2006) X (#2007 graduates/#12th graders, fall 2006)

MO formula from DESE -
graduation rate = (# graduates/# (9th –12th grade dropouts + graduates)) X 100

KS formula from KSDE -
graduation rate = (# graduates/(# graduates + year 4 dropouts + year 3 dropouts + year 2 dropouts + year 1 dropouts)) X 100

About PREP-KC
Guided by the belief that the quality of education for Kansas City’s urban youth impacts the quality of life throughout our region, PREP-KC works with the Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools and the Kansas City, Missouri School District to develop, leverage and deploy resources to improve outcomes for all of Kansas City’s youth. PREP-KC’s goal is to increase college-going and access to high-quality employment for the over 47,000, mostly low-income students served by these two Kansas City districts.