78.2. What's in a number?

The National Center for Education Statistics released its annual update on Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate (AFGR) last week. As many news outlets reported, we're at a historic high of 78.2 percent for the 2009-2010 school year, up from 75.5 the year prior.  That's the highest rate since 1974.

But what's in a number? The Alliance for Excellent Education explains there are multiple graduation rates, including the still relatively new Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate (or ACGR).  ACGR should be a more accurate measure (for many reasons, the most of which is that this is not an average like AFGR, but rather, a real number, based on how many ninth graders actually graduate four year laters).  There are a lot of graduations rates reported in the news, and all of these rates can get very confusing.... and we still haven't gotten to the "why."  Why did we see a nearly 3 percentage point bump in the last year reported (which is a bigger bump than the last few years combined!)?

Well, stay tuned.  The 2013 edition of Building a Grad Nation will be released at the Grad Nation Summit on February 25 by John Bridgeland and Robert Balfanz. The report will provide a lot of useful details - including an explanation of the different rates and a deeper analysis of the data.  (Full disclosure: I'm a coauthor on the 2012 and 2013 reports.) The event is free and open to the public (and featuring a great line up of speakers!) --- it's at capacity, but they're running a waitlist.  If you can't make it, the report will go live on the morning of February 25 on the Civic Enterprises website.