Minneapolis Public School students
graduating on-time WHY IT MATTERS
- The number of jobs available to people who do not graduate from high school is declining, and very few of those that remain pay a wage sufficient to support a family outside of poverty.
- Lack of a high school diploma puts an individual at greater risk for job instability, lower lifetime earnings, poorer health, unemployment and welfare, and prison.
- Communities benefit from more-educated citizens through lower crime rates, less reliance on social assistance programs, and higher voting and volunteering.
HOW WE’RE DOING
Measurement Used: These graduation rates show what percentage of students who began 9th grade stayed on track and earned a diploma four years later.
Overall: 44% percent of Minneapolis Public School students graduated on time[1] (2009[2]).
KEY OBSERVATIONS - About 3,330 students had the potential to graduate on time (i.e., in four years of high school), yet only about 1,460 did, for an overall graduation rate of 44 percent.
- About 5 in 10 girls graduate on time, compared to about 4 in 10 boys. Boys and girls were about equally likely to drop out (17% and 16%, respectively, dropped out in the four years leading up to graduation in 2009.)
- Only 1 in 5 American Indian students, 1 in 4 Hispanic students, and 1 in 3 Black students graduated on time in 2009, an enormous loss of human capital. Faring better, about 6 in 10 Asian students and 7 in 10 White students earned a diploma on time. White students are twice as likely to graduate on time as students of color.
- Only about a third of lower-income students’ graduate in four years, and the graduation gap between them and their higher-income peers is 26 percentage points.
- Not all students who do not graduate on time dropout; many continue their education. In 2009, while 44 percent of Minneapolis Public School students graduated after four years of high school, the rate rises to 56 percent of students who graduated in four, five or six years’ time.
- Comparison data are unavailable for privacy reasons for many charter schools in Minneapolis (because of small class sizes). Among those charters with data available, Lincoln International School (44%) and Augsburg Fairview Academy (33%) had the highest percentages of on-time graduates.
[1] Rate is calculated as the “Four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate.” These graduation rates show what percentage of students who began 9th grade stayed on track and earned a diploma four years later (adjusted for students who transferred in and out of the district). “Potential graduates” represent all of the 9th graders of a particular group who had the potential to graduate four years later (adjusted for transfers), while “actual graduates” indicates how many of these 9th graders actually earned a diploma in those four years. Actual graduates divided by potential graduates, multiplied by 100, equals the graduation rate.
[2] Data year in the graphs represents the second year of a school year; e.g., 2010 data represents graduates from the 2009-2010 school year.