State graduation rates released

An on-time graduation report for the class of 2008 released by the Virginia Department of Education contained errors for the Waynesboro Schools, the superintendent said Wednesday.

Waynesboro Schools Superintendent Robin Crowder said his district was talking to the state education department about a small number of students who were counted twice in the report and about one student who had left to attend another school division.

The Waynesboro Schools were reported as having an on-time graduation rate of 76.9 percent for the class of 2008, putting the district a few percent below the state average of 81.3 percent.

Augusta County led all area school districts with an 84.4 percent on-time graduation rate, while Staunton was at 80.3 percent.

The Virginia Department of Education said the on-time graduation rate indicates the number of students who earn a Board of Education-approved diploma within four years of entering the ninth grade for the first time.

The percentages include students with disabilities and English-language learners, even if they require longer than four years to earn a diploma.

Crowder said that as more data is collected by the state education department, “there is a greater risk for error.”

The other 2008 graduation numbers for the Waynesboro Schools included similar numbers by sex and race, except for Hispanic students, where only 58.3 percent of the 12 Hispanic students graduated.

Crowder said many Hispanic students leave the Waynesboro Schools and return to their native country before they graduate.

“Many of those families go back home and have not been able to find work. There is no report that they have entered into another school,” he said.

In another Valley school district, Harrisonburg, a similar on-time graduation rate was reported for Hispanic students.

Among the 110 Hispanic students in Harrisonburg, 51.8 percent graduated.

Crowder said the data from the state is valuable because it allows the school district to identify groups and subgroups and decide the type of instruction they can provide at the high school.

Elaine Almarode, the curriculum supervisor for school counseling in the Augusta County Schools, said the new reporting system is similar to the start of Virginia’s Standards of Learning, which began in 1997-98.

She said that while Augusta County is doing well, “we are not anywhere toward where we would like to be.”

Mark Emblidge, president of the Virginia Board of Education, called the report positive.

“The fact that better than eight of 10 students in Virginia graduate on time with a diploma is gratifying, given that estimates relied on in the past were much lover,” Emblidge said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.