Ryle victim of grad rate formula

by William Croyle    wcroyle@nky.com

UNION - A new graduation rate formula that schools are now required to use has victimized Ryle High School.

The federally mandated formula, used for No Child Left Behind accountability purposes, produces the Average Freshman Graduation Rate.  Ryle's AFGR tumbled from 83.67 in 2008 to 69.37 in 2010, according to data released last week by the Kentucky Department of Education. 

The reality is that Ryle's 2010 rate was likely much higher than that, but the formula, combined with a state law, will not acknowledge it.

"It shows what nonsense some of these formulas are," said Randy Poe, Boone County Schools' superintendent.

Ryle posted the fourth-highest composite ACT score (21.1) last year among its juniors out of 22 Northern Kentucky public high schools and has generally had a good academic reputation statewide.

So what happened in regard to the formula?

When the new Cooper High School opened five miles from Ryle in 2008, more than 200 of Ryle's freshmen were reassigned to Cooper. That knocked Ryle's enrollment down 11 percent.  According to state law, a school can be classified as "reconfigured" when it has a population shift of 20 percent or more. When a school is considered reconfigured, not all formulas used in acquiring data on it are applied since the data can be skewed by the large population change.

For example, more than 20 percent of freshmen at the district's Conner High School were also moved to Cooper in 2008, so Conner's 2010 AFGR was not reported last week.  But because Ryle didn't meet that threshold, the formula had to be used. The rate is basically determined by dividing the previous year's ninth and 10th grade enrollments by the number of diploma recipients in the current year.

"We had 206 kids leave, and they don't count in the formula as graduating from our school," said Ryle Principal Matt Turner.

Lisa Gross, spokeswoman for the state education department, acknowledged Ryle is a "victim of circumstances that are out of its control."  "The (formula) has its downsides. At the heart, it's an average, and averages are not forgiving," she said. "But this is the rate the U.S. Department of Education is making us use."

Poe said changes must be made to No Child Left Behind.  "You can't give much credence to No Child Left Behind when something like this happens," he said.

The good news is that the formula is temporary. A new one will be used in three years by all states nationwide, and it will track each child (even if he or she moves to another school) rather than using averages.  But that's in three years.

District and school administrators sent letters to parents this past weekend, explaining what happened.
"The parents know they have a good school and good school system, and that this is nonsense," Poe said. "We're not going to change course because of a faulty formula."

Ryle victim of grad rate formula