Cohorts bend graduation rates

On Jan. 22, the Wyoming Department of Education (WDE) released graduation rates for the 2017/2018 school year. The State of Wyoming’s graduation rate rose from 80.2 percent in 2016/2017 to 81.7 percent for the most recent school year. Carbon County School District (CCSD) No. 2 is ahead of that curve, despite the fact that the school district did see a decrease in their graduation rates.

According to Jim Copeland, CCSD No. 2 Superintendent, while the graduation rate for the school district went from 88 percent in 2016/2017 to 86.8 percent in 2017/2018 there is a lot to look at and unpack that goes beyond the percentages reported.

“A lot of people, when they first look at a graduation rate, they say ‘Okay, there’s 23 seniors at Saratoga. They’ve all graduated, that’s 100 percent,’ but that’s not how that’s figured,” said Copeland. “What happens is, when any student comes in and starts as a freshman, they are put in a cohort group. Then, WDE keeps up with all the ins and outs. For example, they could come for one semester to Encampment and then move to another school in Wyoming. Then, that student moves from our cohort in Encampment to whatever high school they go into.”

When that happens, it is expected that CCSD No. 2 will receive a request for records from the school where the departing student had arrived. If that documentation is received, and it often is, that student leaving the cohort in Encampment, Saratoga or Hanna, Elk Mountain and Medicine Bow (HEM) High Schools will not count against the graduation rate for the schools or the district.

“It’s a moving target. You may have as many as 30 names in your cohort that are going in and out during that four year period and only have 15 kids that actually graduate and still have 100 percent,” Copeland said.

The cohort group is tracked from day one of freshman year. Any student who attends one of the three high schools in CCSD No. 2 is automatically added to that group—even if they attend school for just one day. If that student attends another high school in the state and a request for records is sent to the school district then there’s no harm done to the graduation rate. That, however, is not always the case.

“We have had students that have come in for two weeks and, then, just don’t come back. We don’t get a request for records, we don’t know where they are, they’re not living in our community. That counts against us as a dropout, even though we have little control over that,” said Copeland.

Additionally, if a student leaves school and chooses to, instead, pursue their General Education Development (GED), that will also count against the school and the district as a dropout. The same goes for if the student enrolls in the Wyoming Cowboy Challenge Academy, a program for at-risk youth located in Guernsey. These instances, while technically out of control of the school district, ultimately count against the overall graduation rate.

Because of how these factors can be a detriment to the graduation rate of a school or the district, many staff members of the three high schools become investigators. They try and track down students who, sometimes, may have only spent one day in the halls of their school before leaving. Due to how small the population of the students are in the schools are, even one student either dropping out or being unaccounted for can have serious effects.

“This particular year; Encampment had 10 graduates, HEM 13, Saratoga 23. Well, you can do the percentage. One more kid out of that group and then you figure that percentage, that drops it … quite a bit,” Copeland said in regards to the 2017/2018 cohort.

Before publishing their report, the WDE sends the information they have over that four-year period to the school districts. This allows the districts a chance to correct any errors that the State of Wyoming may have in regards to the cohort group for that graduation year. Most of this seems fairly cut and dry, but there’s one area where things get a little murky.

Homeschool

“Homeschool is a little tricky. If a student comes to one our schools for their freshman year, then they decide to homeschool, the State has the judgement as to whether that counts or not. There are factors of curriculum, do we have the board approved documentation in our minutes that the board approved this, do we have that application on file. There have been occasions where we have sent all of that in and they don’t count that against us,” said Copeland.

According to the CCSD No. 2 Superintendent, there have been cases where students have left high school with the declared intention of going through with homeschooling and then fell off the radar. Sometimes, despite the best efforts of school and district staff, they can’t be found.

“There are times when we are trying to track down students that we don’t even know very well, that weren’t with us long enough to even establish a connection with the family,” Copeland said.

One thing that might not be clear to people, however, is the difference between homeschooling and utilizing one of the two virtual high schools in Wyoming; Wyoming Virtual Academy and Wyoming Connections Academy. Both schools are accredited K-12 public schools with the WDE.

“That’s just like going into another high school, so that does not count against us. They can do that at home, though, so a lot of people get confused as to what’s homeschool and what’s virtual academy,” said Copeland. “A true homeschool is if I were a parent and I said ‘Okay, I’m going to teach my own children in my own home and I’m going to use some curriculum that I find somewhere.’ They have to put that on a form that I see and that goes to the board and we approve going to homeschool. Other than that, we have very little real control over, or say over, homeschool.”

Even with the amount of work that goes into keeping track of each and every student that walks through the doors of one of the three high schools in the district and not seeing 100 percent graduation rate, Copeland is still happy with the outcome.