High School Graduation Rate Rises Nearly Four Percent

By: NY1 News

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More New York City high school students earned their diplomas last year.

According to Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, 61 percent of city seniors got their diplomas during the 2007-2008 school year – a 3.6 percent increase over the year before.

The numbers include those who successfully completed summer school.

Without including summer school, the graduation rate is up to 56.4 percent, compared to 52.8 percent the year before and 46.5 percent in 2005.

Graduation rates improved by more than 10 percent for English-language learners. Blacks and Hispanics, along with special ed students, also saw their numbers increase.

The higher graduation rates are coupled with a declining drop-out rate. It fell to 13.5 percent in 2008, down from 15.8 in 2007 and 22 percent in 2005.

It's the seventh year in a row that rates improved, which could give a boost to Bloomberg's effort to keep control of city schools. But the mayoral control law is due to expire at the end of the month, and its future remains in limbo because of the stalemate in the State Senate.

The mayor says there is no plan in place if the bill is not passed.

"There is no roadmap," he said. "Nobody would know what would happen. It would be a nightmare. But I cannot conceive of it happening. We should not waste a lot of time preparing for it. It will get done. The public would not stand for this not getting done."

The mayor's chief rival in the mayoral race, City Comptroller William Thompson, was at City Hall today, where he praised the increased graduation rates, but also cautioned against reading too much into these new numbers.

"If it's accurate, if it's real, I could only applaud it," said Thompson. "But then again, it's a graduation rate. We're seeing students who are going into CUNY, particularly our two-year institutions, we're seeing an increase in remediation. It's like 75 percent of the students. Somehow that doesn't match up with an increase in graduation rates."