Iowa grad rates dip

By Mike Wiser and Erin Jordan

DES MOINES - More than one of every 10 students in the high school freshman class of 2007 didn't make it to graduation in 2011, according to a report released Thursday by officials at the Iowa Department of Education.

Overall, the graduation rate for Iowa's class was 88.3 percent, about 0.5 percent lower than the 88.8 percent rate from 2010. The 2009 rate was 87.3 percent, according to department figures.

Locally, Cedar Rapids and Iowa City saw four-year graduation rates improve, with Iowa City climbing from 85.2 percent in 2010 to 88.1 percent in 2011 and Cedar Rapids inching up from 80.9 percent to 81.6 percent.

“We've put a number of programs in place that have helped improve our graduation rates,” said Sandy Stephen, executive administrator of instructional services for the Cedar Rapids school district.

Credit-recovery labs at each Cedar Rapids high school allow students to repeat course sections online so they can keep moving toward graduation, Stephen said. The district is also doing more to track struggling students and figure out which interventions are most successful.

Iowa City offers online completion programs for students within one trimester of graduation, West High Principal Jerry Arganbright said.

Clear Creek Amana's graduation rate fell from 90.4 percent in 2010 to 86.5 percent in 2011. Linn-Mar dipped from 91.8 percent to 89.1 percent.

“We are working to provide appropriate supports to students who are potential dropoutsthrough our at-risk programming, differentiated instructional strategies and use of technology,” Clear Creek Superintendent Denise Schares said.

Iowa continues to have one of the best graduation rates in the nation, Department of Education Director Jason Glass said in a news release announcing the new figures. “While this one-year decrease is not dramatic, we need to move the numbers back in the right direction. All students must be prepared to succeed in life,” Glass said.

To calculate graduation rate, incoming freshmen are assigned identification numbers, which allows schools to track students as they move through their high school careers. This is the third year that Iowa has used the identification number system to track students.

Of the 328 Iowa school districts that have high schools, 136 had an increased graduation rate, 14 had no change and 178 decreased.