The U.S. Department of Education came out with its holiday stocking stuffer today, in the form of non-regulatory guidance on the new graduation-rate regulations that went into effect Nov. 28.
The new regs, which have pleased advocates for the disabled but further annoyed groups like the National Conference of State Legislatures, require districts to use the same method of calculating graduation rates by the 2011-12 school year. They’re in line with what the nation’s governors agreed to do, voluntarily, in 2005.
According to the department, the new guidance: helps states in setting a single graduation-rate goal and annual graduation-rate targets, outlines requirements for reporting graduation rates, and answers questions about how states include the four-year, adjusted cohort graduation rate and any extended-year adjusted cohort graduation rate in AYP determinations, including the use of disaggregated rates for student subgroups. The guidance also clarifies the timeline for implementing the new graduation rate provisions.
In David’s absence, I threw out a couple of calls this afternoon to state-level organizations trying to figure out if there’s anything significant in this guidance document, but with the holidays, few people are thinking about graduation rates. So, if you spot anything interesting, please leave a comment below.
