Don Severson: Active Citizens for Education’s Retention Rate White Paper: [64K PDF]

The Madison Metropolitan School District has one of the highest costs per pupil of any school district in the state ($12,500, 2004-05). Madison District officials state that the high cost per student is needed in order to achieve success in many of the important academic areas. This paper compares retention rates of the Madison School District, (the number of pupils who were not passed to the next grade level) with fourother districts: Appleton, Green Bay, Kenosha and Racine. Retention occurs when a student has not made progress in a prescribed course of study. A pupil is consideredretained if:

• a pupil needs an additional year to complete a prescribed program
• a pupil in grades kindergarten through eight must repeat a grade
• a pupil in high school (freshman, sophomore, junior, or senior years) does nothave enough credits equal to or more than one-seventh of the district�s high school requirement

This 40K PDF compares the Madison School District with Appleton, Green Bay, Kenosha, Racine and Milwaukee.