Education — High school graduates 76.6 percent of students in the class of 2014

Although changes to the formula increased graduation rates across the state, Newberg High School’s graduation rate for the class of 2014 rose slightly to 76.6 percent, according to figures released Jan. 29 by the Oregon Department of Education.

Beginning with the class of 2014, ODE expanded the definition of a high school graduate to include students who earned modified diplomas, which helped raise the state average from 68.7 in 2013 to 72.0 percent last year.

Newberg’s graduation rate fell from a recent high of 78.2 percent in 2012 to 70.0 percent in 2013. District officials attributed that to the prior cohort being unusually high-achieving, as the NHS graduation rate has traditionally stayed steady between 70 and 74 percent over the past decade or so.

Accounting for the seven students who earned modified diplomas in 2013, Newberg’s rate would have been 74.2 percent last year, meaning under the new formula, its rate improved 2.2 percentage points.

As a state, Oregon’s rate dropped 0.7 points from 2013 to 2014 under the old formula, while it dropped a bit less, 0.22 percent from 70.33 to 70.11, when including modified diplomas.

Last year, 292 Newberg students earned a regular diploma and six earned a modified one, putting the 2014 graduation rate at 73.52 percent, good enough for a 3.5 percent jump, under the old formula.

“Including students receiving modified diplomas creates a more accurate view of our graduates,” Superintendent Kym LeBlanc-Esparza said. “We expect to continue this upward trajectory as we eliminate barriers to graduation for students in the future.”

Newberg also saw improvement in several sub-categories, including students with disabilities, migrant students and economically-disadvantaged students.

The new formula played a large role in the grad rate of students with disabilities rising from 42.3 to 59.6 percent, but less so in that of economically-disadvantaged students, which jumped from 54.8 to 65.7.

Using the new formula for both 2013 and 2014, the increase for the students with disabilities was 3.9 points compared to 17.6, while the rate of economically-disadvantaged students was nearly the same with a 9.9-point improvement compared to 10.3.

The increase in the migrant student grad rate was not affected by the new formula, as no members of the class of 2013 in that category received a modified diploma.

Newberg mirrored a state trend in seeing about a 10 percent gap between females and males, as 76.2 percent of females in the state graduated in 2014 compared to 68.0 percent of males. In Newberg, females graduated at an 81.9 percent clip compared to the male rate of 72.0.

At the Newberg school board meeting Jan. 27, LeBlanc-Esparza noted the trend (although she did not cite specific figures because the information was embargoed) and said both gaps deserve investigation.

Written by: Seth Gordon