The Florida Department of Education released state graduation and dropout rates today. Orange County’s graduation rate continues to rise and dropout rate continues to drop. The state released three different graduation rates for each county using varying methods of calculation. In all three ways, Orange County’s graduation rate exceeded 75 percent.
The OCPS dropout rate of 1.1 percent is the lowest in decades, and lower than the state average dropout rate of 2.3 percent. Last year OCPS lost only 1.5 percent of its high school students.
The state employed three methods of calculating graduation rates:
1. Florida Graduation Rate – same calculation as in previous years
2. National Governor’s Association (NGA) Graduation Rate – new national standard that does not include graduates who earn General Equivalency Diplomas (GED)
3. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Graduation Rate
For Orange County Public Schools in 2008-09:
· The Florida Graduation Rate was 77.4 percent, an increase of 1.8 percentage points from 75.6 percent in 2007-08.
· The National Governor’s Association (NGA) Graduation Rate was 75.9 percent, an increase of 2.3 percentage points from 73.6 percent in 2007-08.
· The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Graduation Rate was 75.3 percent, an increase of 2.4 percentage points from 72.9 percent in 2007-08.
For more information and detail on Florida graduation and dropout rates, please visit http://fldoe.org/eias/eiaspubs/word/gradrate0809.doc.
