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August 14, 2008
Mapping NYC graduation rates
On Monday, New York State released the most recent graduation rate data. How did the community school districts fare? Schools located in two districts had graduation rates of more than 70%: District 26 (73%) and District 13 (76%). At the other end of the spectrum, three districts posted 4-year graduation rates of less than 40 percent — District 18 (32%), District 16 (34%), and District 19 (39%).
How did your district do? Check out the map below.
Eduwonkette blogs regularly at Education Week about national policy and research. At GothamSchools, she’ll be contributing her perspective on New York City schools data.
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August 14th, 2008 4:01 pm
eduwonkette flies over to GothamSchools: NYC Graduation Rates…
NYC Readers - Wondering what’s going on with the graduation rates that were released this week? Head on over to GothamSchools, where I will be posting occasionally on NYC education issues, and check out a map of 4-year cohort graduation……
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August 14th, 2008 4:35 pm
Your district map for high school graduation can be misleading. Many – maybe even most — high school students go to high schools outside of their geographical district: there really is a system of choice at the high schools. D26 and D31 [Staten Island] are more exceptions rather than rules. The best illustration is that D13 appears at the top of your measures, when nothing else out of that district would indicate a superior level of education. The reason why? It has very few high schools, and one of that few – Brooklyn Tech – produces a great many graduates. Of course, Tech draws only a fraction of its students from D13.
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August 14th, 2008 4:49 pm
Hi Leo,
Point well taken - but I do believe the map demonstrates that, on average, a very strong predictor of graduation rates continues to be the socioeconomic status of the neighborhood. Though there is a citywide market for high school education formally, I suspect that the majority of students who reside in low-income neighborhoods attend schools in neighborhoods much like their own, even if they attend high school out of district. Also, what this map does show is that neighborhoods in some of the toughest parts of Brooklyn and the Bronx continue to have very low graduation rates.
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August 14th, 2008 4:53 pm
leo -
Good point. We always need to be careful about statistics. But the map does show that non-graduating students are being concentrated into economically disadvantaged districts. District 19 = East new York. District 18 = East Flatbush. District 16 =Crown Heights. These kids are largely out of sight out of mind.
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August 14th, 2008 5:02 pm
I agree, Leo, that you have to be careful about what inferences you draw from this map — like you, I saw immediately how Brooklyn Tech skewed the District 13 average. The strongest conclusion you can draw, I think, is that motivated students in some parts of the Bronx and eastern Brooklyn must travel long distances in order to have a decent chance of going to a school where they will be likely to graduate in four years. And students in those areas who are not motivated to travel long distances have a high likelihood of winding up at a school with a very low graduation rate.
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August 20th, 2008 10:43 pm
As a high school teacher in Dist. 7, (the South Bronx) I am very happy that my district posted greater than 50% graduation rates…I thought the rates were lower!
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