Colorado’s high school graduation rate was 74.6 percent during the 2003-04 school year overall, above the national rate of 69.9 percent, according to a national report released this morning.
But rates in Colorado varied widely across racial and gender lines, and across districts, said the report, “Diplomas Count: Ready for What? Preparing for College, Careers and Life After High School.”
White and Asian females had the best chances of earning a high school diploma that year, while Latino males and Native American females had the lowest high school graduation rates, according to the report, produced by the Maryland-based Editorial Projects in Education Research Center.
In Denver Public Schools, the graduation rate was 46.3 percent, while in the Colorado Springs 11 School District, it was 76 percent, above the state average.
The report makes graduation-rate projections for all 50 states, based on high school enrollments that year, and gives breakdowns by race, gender and ethnicity.
U.S. Department of Labor data used in the report show a strong link between a person’s level of education and job earning potential, with the lowest-paying jobs going to the least educated.
“There is so much riding on graduating high school,” said Christopher Swanson, director of the research center. “If you don’t finish high school, it’s really dire.”
The Colorado Department of Education lists the state’s graduation rate during the 2003-04 school year as 82.3 percent – 7.7 percent higher than what the Education Center found.
The CDE rate was based on a different formula. Rather than using enrollment projections, the state’s formula looked at the percentage of students who received a diploma from a public high school during the 2003-04 school year as a percentage of the number of students who began ninth grade four years earlier, said Peter Fritz, of the department.
The rate takes into account students who transferred into or out of the district over the four years, he said. However, it does not include those who got a generally equivalency diploma, Fritz said.
Staff writer Karen Rouse can be reached at 303-954-1684 or krouse@denverpost.com.
