Graduate numbers fall again for Memphis City Schools

District misses No Child Left Behind target

Graduation rates in Memphis City Schools have slipped again, falling nearly 5 percentage points in a year to 62.1 percent.

Last year, the Memphis rate was 66.9 percent. The national average graduation rate is about 69 percent.

MCS missed its target by 12 points.

"We just had way too many kids drop out in this four-year time span," said Bill White, head of school choice and student accounting for the district.

Under the No Child Left Behind federal mandate, MCS was supposed to graduate 74.6 percent of its seniors in 2009. In 2010, it must graduate 77.6 percent of its seniors or risk punitive measures, although the state is requesting a waiver from the U.S. Department of Education.

The MCS class of 2009 lost 25.9 percent of students who were freshmen in 2006, meaning that one in four dropped out or transferred and did not report their new schools to district officials.

The remaining 12 percent are a mix of special students who may or may not have finished school but don't count toward graduation and those who did not complete high school within 41/2 years.

As recently as 2007, the MCS dropout rate was 14.7 percent, about one in seven.

"I wish I had a definitive answer on what changed," said White, who was recently appointed chairman of a district task force on the issue.

The group's first meeting is today. While it now is made up of district administrators, it soon will also include parents and students, White said.

While Memphis struggles, Tennessee as a whole is showing some of the most stunning progress in the nation in graduation rates, going from 59 percent in 2003 to 82.2 percent in 2008 and 2009.

In Shelby County Schools, for instance, 96.3 percent of the class of 2009 graduated last spring.

MCS Supt. Kriner Cash has instituted several programs to attack the issue, including four charter schools for children over-age for grade and in danger of dropping out.

With millions of dollars in state grants, he is also retooling classes at 14 high schools to reflect Memphis career paths, including biotech, aviation, public safety, logistics and tourism.

"These dropouts are not kids just suddenly waking up and saying, 'I'm going to drop out,'" said White. "They have experienced a lot of failure along the way and now have gotten to the age where they think they are mature enough to leave school."

Graduation is a touchy subject in public education because states use myriad ways to calculate it. Some assume dropouts have transferred to another district school and count the students; others count those who earn GEDs as graduates.

To complicate the issue, nearly every high school in the state has a different benchmark it needs to meet, based on its graduation rate when No Child Left Behind became law.

The standards will rise every year until 2014, when every high school in the nation is expected to have a 90 percent graduation rate.

Ridgeway High and Cordova High both hit the benchmark several years ago when their student bodies were largely white and suburban.

As population shifted, the schools reported increasing poverty levels.

For the first time this year, both schools failed to make the benchmark and as a result are on "target" status.

Cordova, with a 40 percent poverty level, reported a 77.3 percent graduation rate; Ridgeway, where 68 percent of the student body now live in poverty, posted an 80.25 percent rate.

On the other end of the spectrum, Carver High, with a 92 percent poverty rate, made its NCLB requirement with a graduation rate of 53.2 percent.

"It all depends on where you started," said White. "That's one of the ironies of the way this works. Ridgeway still has one of the highest graduation rates in the district, but their benchmark is higher, too."

-- Jane Roberts: 529-2512

By the numbers

Graduation rate in Memphis City Schools for 2009: 62.1%

Graduation rate in Shelby County Schools for 2009: 96.3%

Graduation rate in Tennessee for 2008 and 2009: 82.2%