Kentucky’s high school graduation rate is declining!!!!

The new Digest of Education Statistics 2010 recently released, and there is sobering news for Kentucky in Table 112.

The latest Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate (AFGR) for Kentucky sank again for the second year in a row (click on graph to enlarge).


Based on this latest available data from the feds, Kentucky’s AFGR slipped back below the national average rate for the first time since 2004-05.

As a note, the ‘official’ 2007-08 high school graduation rate reported by the Kentucky Department of Education was 84.52 percent, over 10 points higher than the 74.4 percent rate the feds say we really had.



By the way, the Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate calculation was carefully researched by the National Center for Education Statistics after No Child Left Behind required states to report high school graduation rates. Most states, as Kentucky did, chose to use highly inflated calculations that masked the true dropout situation.

Starting this summer, Kentucky is being forced to start using the more accurate AFGR formula. The graph above provides clues as to why our state’s education leaders had to be forced to do this.