Graduation Cohort Guidance Memorandum

REVISED 7/10/08

IntroductionThis Memorandum states the rules that determine a school’s graduation cohort. A graduation cohort is a group of students who areexpected to graduate on time in a particular year. For example, the 2004 Cohort represents students who are expected to graduateat the end of the 2007/2008 school year (e.g. “Class of 2008”).This methodology is based on NCLB/SED policy and will also be used by the Progress Report going forward. The 2007/08Progress Report (to be released in Fall 2008) will use this methodology to calculate the graduation rate based on the

2004

Cohort(“Class of 2008”). The 2007/08 NCLB/SED Accountability and Overview Report (scheduled to be released in Fall 2008) will alsouse this methodology to calculate the graduation rate, but in this case for the

2003

Cohort (“Class of 2007”), because the graduationrate the State uses for this purpose has a one-year lag.

1. Who is in a school’s 4-year graduation cohort? (example using the 2004 Cohort)

For the 2007/08 Progress Report (to be released in Fall 2008) and 2008/09 NCLB/SED Accountability Reports (to be released inFall 2009), a school’s 4-yr graduation cohort is all students who:

•

Are assigned to the 2004

Cohort Year

(this cohort is represented by the letter ’J‘ in ATS),

and

•

Were active in the school as of June 30, 2008, or the school is the last diploma-granting high school that they attendedbefore June 30, 2008,

and

•

Were not discharged with a code that removes students from the cohort (see Appendix A below),

and

•

For NCLB/SED calculation only:

attended the school for five or more consecutive months (excluding July and August) atany point during their first four years of high school.

2. How is a student assigned a

Cohort Year

A student’s

Cohort Year

assigns her to a graduation cohort. For example, the 2004 graduation cohort, represented in ATS withthe letter “J”, is made up of students who are expected to graduate in June of 2008.A student’s

Cohort Year

is initially determined in ATS using the following rules:1. For “graded” students,

Cohort Year

is determined by the year in which the student entered 9

grade anywhere (whetherin NYCDOE or elsewhere). Section 3 below gives further details on the rules that ATS uses to calculate a student’s

Grade 9 Entry Year

.2. For “ungraded” students,

Cohort Year

is determined by the school year in which a student turns 17. For example, if anungraded student turns 17 during the 2004/05 school year (July 1, 2004 to June 30, 2005), she is assigned to the 2004Cohort, represented by the letter ‘J’ in ATS.3. If a student switches between “graded” and “ungraded” status, the most recent status for the student is used todetermine her cohort, unless it would move the student from a cohort that is yet-to-graduate to a cohort that shouldalready have graduated.

•

See Appendix B for examples illustrating these rules.

3. How is a student assigned a

Grade 9 Entry Year

The

Grade 9 Entry Year

in ATS is used to determine a student’s year in high school for the credits and regents metrics on theProgress Report. For “graded” students, the

Grade 9 Entry Year

automatically places a student in a cohort.A student’s Grade 9 Entry Year is initially determined in ATS using the following rules:1. A student’s

Grade 9 Entry Year

is determined by her grade level at the end of her first year of high school.2. A “year of high school” means any year in which the student ends the year in a high school grade level (9 – 12).3. During the student’s first year of high school, the

Grade 9 Entry Year

is set based on her current grade level andrecalculated when she changes grade level anytime during that year.4. After a student’s first year of high school, her

Grade 9 Entry Year

is never recalculated and can only be changed by amanual override process, which is initiated by a school request through the UGNO screen in ATS.

•

See Appendix C for examples illustrating these rules.

4. How is a student determined to be graded or ungraded?

Under the most recent NCLB/SED rules, only a small proportion of special education students may be considered ungraded, andungraded status may not be determined by the type of setting in which a student receives his or her special education services.Consistent with this rule, all NYSAA eligible students will be considered ungraded for purposes of Progress Report andNCLB/SED Accountability. Students who receive special education instruction in CTT or Self-Contained settings but are notNYSAA eligible will not be considered ungraded. Schools will be held-harmless on the 2007/08 Progress Report with respect tothis change: no school will receive a lower grade solely because of it.

5. How can a school update the Cohort Year for a student if the Cohort Year automatically assigned by ATS is incorrect?

If the student is graded, the school must request an update to the

Grade 9 Entry Year

using the ATS function UGNO. If therequest is approved and the

Grade 9 Entry Year

is changed, the student’s

Cohort Year

will be automatically updated. The schoolcan review the status of requests using the function DGNO. If the student is ungraded, her

Cohort Year

cannot change unlesseither her birth date or her NYSAA eligibility is not correctly recorded in ATS and is updated.