Kentucky Department of Education

News Release 07-035 - May 24, 2007

            (FRANKFORT, Ky.) – Data from the 2005-06 school year show that Kentucky's public school students had higher graduation and attendance rates than those in the 2004-05 school year, and dropout rates and retention rates decreased slightly during the same time period.

            The graduation rate increased from 82.86 percent in 2005 to 83.26 percent in 2006. Kentucky began reporting graduation rate data with the 2000-01 school year to comply with requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. Because NCLB requires that graduation rates not include students who received certificates of completion and those who took longer than four years to graduate, a more rigid formula to determine the rates was adopted by the Kentucky Board of Education in 2002.The 2001 and 2002 rates include students who received certificates of completion and those who took longer than four years to graduate. Rates collected after those years include only those students who finished high school within four years and those students with Individual Education Plans (IEP) that allow more than four years to graduate.

The overall high school dropout rate decreased slightly, from 3.47 percent in 2005 to 3.31 percent in 2006. In grades 9-12, 152 fewer students dropped out in 2006 than in 2005.

The school retention rate -- the percentage of students held back a grade -- decreased slightly, from 3.30 percent to 2.92 percent. School attendance rates increased from 94.31 percent to 94.60 percent.

Although the rate of successful transition to adult life decreased slightly from 2005 to 2006, the percentage of public high school graduates who went on to college increased, from 54 percent in 2005 to 54.9 percent in 2006.

 

COMPARISONS OF NON-ACADEMIC DATA - STATEWIDE RATES

 

                                                     2001-02            2002-03            2003-04            2004-05            2005-06

Attendance                                   94.43%             94.31%             94.26%             94.31%            94.60%

Dropout (grades 9-12)                   3.93%               3.34%               3.33%               3.47%              3.31%

Graduation                                   80.83%             79.15%             81.29%             82.86%            83.26%

Retention                                      3.55%               3.38%               3.27%               3.30%              2.92%

Successful Transition                   95.67%             96.03%             96.00%             96.15%            96.07%

 

HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUT RATES BY GENDER

 

              MALE      FEMALE

2002        4.63%        3.20%

2003        3.91%        2.75%

2004        3.91%        2.77%

2005        4.06%        2.86%

2006        3.91%        2.69%

 

HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUT RATES BY RACE

              

              

              WHITE         AFRICAN             HISPANIC              ASIAN        AMERICAN           OTHER

                                  AMERICAN                                                          INDIAN              

2002        3.78%          5.52%                    5.96%                 2.09%          1.64%                    2.72%

2003        3.23%          4.45%                    4.65%                 1.80%          2.08%                    2.29%

2004        3.22%          4.56%                    4.77%                 1.73%          5.32%                    2.50%

2005        3.21%          5.75%                    5.08%                 1.39%          2.81%                    3.38%

2006        3.03%          5.45%                    6.11%                 1.11%          2.64%                    3.67%

 

Today's release of nonacademic data is one component of the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System (CATS). The other component -- the Kentucky Core Content Test (KCCT) results -- will be released in late summer. Non-academic data is comprised of dropout, graduation, retention, attendance and successful transition to adult life rates. With the exception of graduation rates, which are required under the federal NCLB Act, each rate contributes a specific percentage to a school's overall accountability index.

            See complete details on district and school nonacademic data by visiting the Kentucky Department of Education's Web site at http://www.education.ky.gov and clicking on the link under "Headlines."

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