Indiana's Graduation Rate

Please note that high school graduation rates provided on this page reflect students who graduated within four years.

2006-2007 Graduation Rate:

• NEWS RELEASE: Indiana high school graduation rates released
   
  
• Graduation rates for local schools:
  • School corporations
  • Public high schools
  • Accredited Nonpublic high schools
     
    
• Search graduation rates by high school

Resources:

• Dropout Prevention in Indiana: A Framework for Moving Forward
   
• High School Redesign Efforts
  

Related Information:

• History of Indiana’s Graduation Rate
   
• Graduation Rate Legislation (Indiana Code 20-26-13)
   
• Graduation Rate Glossary
   
• Documentation of Transfers, Withdrawals, and Other Circumstances the Result in Removal of a Student from the Graduation Cohort.
   

History of Indiana’s Graduation Rate

Former Graduation Rate Calculation — (1988-89 to 2004-05)

Prior to 2005-06, Indiana used a uniform measure for high school graduation rates based on a calculation that recommended by the National Center for Education Statistics and adopted by many states. That rate is calculated as follows:

For the graduation class of any year, the percentage of the class that did not drop out in Grade 9 is calculated based on the October enrollment in Grade 9. Then the percentage that did not drop out in Grade 10 is calculated based on the October enrollment in Grade 10. The same is done for Grades 11 and 12. All the percentages are then multiplied together. For example: .95 X .96 X .96 X .95 equals a rate of 83.2 percent.

This graduation rate was not a four-year high school completion rate. It calculated the percentage of students who persisted in school from one year to the next, regardless of their educational progress. Calculating a four-year completion rate required a method for following individual students from entry into Grade 9 through graduation, which first became possible in Indiana with the 2005-06 school year (Class of 2006).

New Graduation Rate Calculation — (Beginning 2005-06 and amended for 2006-2007)

In 1999, the Indiana General Assembly passed legislation (codified at IC 20-31-7) that allowed the Department of Education to begin tracking individual student progress through Indiana’s Student Test Number (STN) system. The Department implemented the STN system statewide in 2002 following a pilot project.

In 2003, the General Assembly passed additional legislation (codified at IC 20-26-13) that instructed the Department to begin using a new method for calculating high school graduation rates in 2005-06 (the first time four years of student-level STN data would be available), making Indiana among the first states in the nation to calculate graduation rates based on student-level information.

The new formula began by establishing a cohort (or class) of first-time freshmen that expands and contracts as students transfer in and out of school during the years that follow. The intent of the authors of the legislation was to calculate a graduation rate that presented the percentage of students who entered Grade 9 in Fall 2002 and graduated in four years or less. The actual legislation, however, included all students that graduated that year (not limited to those students who graduated in four years or less). “Late” graduates (students who persisted in school but did not graduate in four years) were included in the calculation.

Four-Year Graduation Rate Calculation — (Beginning 2006-2007)

In a letter delivered on Jan. 11, 2008, the Chairs of the Indiana General Assembly Education Committees notified Superintendent of Public Instruction Suellen Reed that 2007 amendments to the statutory language for calculating high school graduation rates (codified at IC 20-26-13) do not reflect the legislature’s intent. As high school graduation rates are a key element of the Annual Performance Reports (required under IC 20-20-8), Indiana Department of Education staff began working to comply with the legislators’ request to recalculate and “publish graduation rates for 2007 that reflect the legislature’s original intent….”

As per legislative intent, the 2006-07 graduation rate (Class of 2007) that will be published in the 2007 Annual Performance Report will be the percentage of students who entered Grade 9 in fall 2003 and graduated in four years or less. This is the first publication of this method for calculating graduation rates. For informational purposes, four-year graduations rates for 2005-06 (Class of 2006) are also provided.