INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana's high school graduation rate, as calculated by the federal government, is set to plummet next month due to a disagreement between state and U.S. education officials over which Hoosier students count as graduates.
The U.S. Department of Education has rejected a waiver request from Jennifer McCormick, the Republican state superintendent of public instruction, asking that the approximately 8,000 high school students who earned a general diploma in 2017 be included in Indiana's federal graduation rate, as they are in the state's diploma tally.
Jason Botel, U.S. principal deputy assistant secretary of education, said in a letter to McCormick that under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) only Indiana's Core 40 diploma is recognized as evidence of adequate educational training, and students who earn a general diploma cannot be included in the state's graduation rate under the law.
"The (federal) definition of a 'regular high school diploma' provides protection for students to ensure that they are provided significant opportunity to receive a fair, equitable and high-quality education, and to close educational achievement gaps," Botel said.
"The general diploma requires less rigorous coursework than the Core 40 diploma and is insufficient to enroll in an Indiana four-year college or university. Given these factors, it is unclear how the waiver requested by the Indiana Department of Education would ensure that students awarded a general diploma are held to the same standards as students awarded the Core 40 diploma."
Preliminary estimates show that removing general diploma graduates will drop Indiana's 2017 federal high school graduation rate to approximately 75 percent.
The exact rate is due to be announced May 25.
The 2017 graduation rate calculated by the Indiana Department of Education, which includes all diplomas earned by Hoosier students, was 87.19 percent.
McCormick said it was unfortunate that the U.S. Department of Education engaged in "federal overreach" by denying Indiana's request to count all awarded high school diplomas in the state's federal graduation rate.
"Our waiver clearly demonstrated Indiana's diploma requirements as comparable to and often times exceeding those of other states whose ESSA plans were approved," McCormick said.
"This decision will have an unnecessary, but noticeable outcome on our federal graduation rates and result in a misperception that students are not performing at a proficient level."
At the same time, the state's federal graduation rate drop should be short-lived since the Republican-controlled General Assembly last month revamped Indiana's high school diplomas to better comply with ESSA.
House Enrolled Act 1426 replaced the state's four separate high school diplomas with a single diploma that comes with one of four designations: general; Core 40; Core 40 with academic honors; and Core 40 with technical honors.
Adam Baker, spokesman for the state education department, said having one Indiana diploma should ensure all Hoosier high school graduates are counted in future federal graduation rate calculations.
In the meantime, IDOE estimates that up to 103 schools may be mistakenly labeled by the federal government as "at risk" due to their 2017 graduation rate drop caused by removing general diploma students from the count.
Baker said that likely will have little long-term impact as most of those schools next year will see their federal graduation rate bounce up to again match the state rate after Indiana's diploma changes are implemented.
"The last thing we want is for people to think their school district is not academically preparing students in a successful manner just because of a rate that is inaccurate," Baker said.
He explained that the lower federal graduation rate also should not impact the A-F grade, and associated consequences, assigned to Indiana schools by the State Board of Education since it uses the state's graduation rate calculation for school accountability purposes.
McCormick noted that paradox, to no avail, in her waiver request: "Given conflicting federal and state definitions, an individual school could receive a letter grade in which they celebrate under Indiana’s accountability system while simultaneously being identified as a Comprehensive Support and Improvement school under the federal definition."