Graduates of New York State public and charter schools are reported three ways, at three different locations.
Annual Graduates
Annual graduates are reported in the “Outcomes” section of the New York State Report Cards on data.nysed.gov under “School Data” by selecting “School Report Card.” Students included in these counts are those who earned a Regents or local diploma in the reporting year. These results are notby cohort. Annual counts of graduates, not graduation rates, are provided, as the New York State Education Department believes that graduation rates for cohorts are more valid and reliable.
Cohort Graduates
Graduation rates for students who entered grade 9 (or ungraded students with disabilities who turned 17) in a particular school year (graduation-rate cohort) are calculated and reported four and five years after the students first entered grade 9 as of June and as of August and six years after the students first entered grade 9 as of June. These data are available on data.nysed.gov under “School Data” by selecting “High School Graduation Rate.”
Graduates for Institutional Accountability
Graduation rates for students who entered grade 9 (or ungraded students with disabilities who turned 17) in a particular school year (graduation-rate cohort) are calculated and reported as of August four and five years after the students first entered grade 9. Certain accountability rules (i.e., combining multiple years of data for small schools, including former students with disabilities in the students with disabilities group and former English language learners in the English language learner group if there are 30 or more students with disabilities or English language learners) are applied to these calculations. These data are available on data.nysed.gov under “School Data” by selecting “School Report Card.”
For more information on which students are included in a cohort, see Appendix V: Cohort Definitions in the Student Information Repository System (SIRS) Manual at http://www.p12.nysed.gov/irs/sirs/home.html.