The story in the MMSD today has the reason for the discrepancies.
“The district reports that 78 percent of the African American students who entered high school in 2003-04 graduated four years later. That represents an amazing improvement since 1991-92, when just 46 percent of the African American freshmen got their diplomas four years later.”
DPI includes all students who graduated, including students who transfered to mmsd from other districts.
While these numbers look good, I confess I would have more confidence in them if they matched the data from DPI (see
http://data.dpi.state.wi.us/data/graphshell.asp?ORGLEVEL=DI&FULLKEY=02326903ZZZZ&DN=Madison+Metropolitan&SN=None+Chosen&GRAPHFILE=HIGHSCHOOLCOMPLETION).
For instance, MMSD reports 4 year graduation rates for African American students as being 76% in 2005 and 72% in 2006, but DPI reports that those numbers are 60.9% and 64.6% respectively.
For more examples of discrepancies between MMSD and DPI, see http://www.schoolinfosystem.org/archives/2007/08/where_does_mmsd.php
The story in the MMSD today has the reason for the discrepancies.
“The district reports that 78 percent of the African American students who entered high school in 2003-04 graduated four years later. That represents an amazing improvement since 1991-92, when just 46 percent of the African American freshmen got their diplomas four years later.”
DPI includes all students who graduated, including students who transfered to mmsd from other districts.