Some Colorado schools see less than half of students graduate, but state says that's reality of work

Some Colorado schools see less than half of students graduate, but state says that’s reality of working with challenging population


In one out of every seven Colorado high schools, half or fewer of the students who were supposed to make up the Class of 2018 graduated last year — and unless trends change dramatically, many of them never will.

An analysis by The Denver Post of data from the 2017-2018 school year found 81 Colorado high schools graduated no more than half of their students within four years. Thirty-eight of those schools still hadn’t graduated more than half of the Class of 2015 by the end of 2018. Even with GEDs included, 23 schools still don’t crack the 50-percent mark.

But state officials urged caution in blaming schools for low graduation rates. The majority are “alternative education campuses,” which serve students who already have dropped out once or are at risk of doing so, said Judith Martinez, director of the Colorado Department of Education’s Office of Dropout Prevention and Student Re-Engagement.

Because alternative schools serve a challenging population, the state grades them on their completion rate, which can include GEDs, Martinez said. Those where less than 67 percent of the class completes high school or its equivalent in seven years or less are offered more support under the federal performance framework, she said.

Read more: https://www.denverpost.com/2019/05/05/colorado-high-school-graduation-rates-2017-2018/