St. Mary’s County Public Schools (SMCPS) high school students are graduating at a record high rate, according to newly released data from the Maryland State Department of Education.

The four-year cohort graduation rate reached 87.7 percent for the class of 2012 – students who entered school in the fall of 2008 – compared to 83.66 percent in 2011. The new rate represents a jump of more than four percentage points in a single year. At the same time, the four-year cohort dropout rate fell from 11.37 percent in 2011 to 8.84 percent in 2012. Both measures outpace the Maryland State Average.

 “We have been deliberate in our scaffolding of support for our high school students, from online credit recovery options to alternative programs like Fairlead,” said Dr. Michael J. Martirano, Superintendent of Schools. “Thanks to the unwavering efforts of our teachers, counselors, administrators, and support staff, we are graduating more students than ever before – and ensuring that they are college and career ready.”

Under a change in federal rules, high school graduation numbers are calculated in what is commonly called the “cohort rate.” The four-year adjusted cohort rate is the number of students who graduate with a regular high school diploma divided by the number of students who form the adjusted cohort for the graduating class. For any given cohort, students who are entering 9th grade for the first time form a cohort that is later “adjusted” by adding students who transfer in during the succeeding years, and subtracting those who transfer out.

Graduation rates for most demographic groups have been improving as well. For example, the four-year cohort graduation rate for African American students has improved nearly 4.5 percentage points since 2010 and the graduation rate for Special Education students has improved nearly 8 percentage points, during that same time.

Each high school has shown improvement with the four-year cohort graduation rate, with the greatest increase at Great Mills High School – rising over 6 percentage points in one year.

The new graduation data is now available on Maryland’s Report Card website, www.MdReportCard.org. A video tutorial on the cohort graduation rate is available at http://mdk12.org/data/AYP/GradRateTutorials/GradRate_a.html