Hidden Dropouts
Schools had originally categorized these students as withdrawing to home-school, which would have left them out of graduation rates. But it’s unclear whether they ever continued their education.
Indiana will review over 100 schools to try to stem the tide of students who leave without diplomas but are not counted as dropping out.
Nearly 3,700 Indiana students who were expected to graduate in 2019 left high school without diplomas but didn’t affect graduation rates because they were labeled as leaving to home-school.
The information comes from a first-of-its-kind state report that sheds new light on the nearly 3,700 students statewide who weren’t included in graduation calculations.
The takeover schools have had mixed performance under the Florida-based charter network’s management.
Those students were wiped off the books because they were labeled as leaving to home-school — a designation that helps boost graduation rates for high schools.
As a result of the audit, the graduation rate fell 21 percentage points in 2019.
The nonprofit with ties to the charter network could seek approval from several other authorizers across the state.
Manual was the subject of a recent Chalkbeat investigation into the large numbers of students leaving without diplomas.
Christel House Academy wants to relocate its southside school to Manual High School if oversight of that campus is returned to IPS.
Although the decision is controversial, the roughly 50 speakers at the meeting were uniformly supportive of the schools receiving charters.
Indianapolis residents will have the chance Monday to offer input on the fate of Howe, Manual, and Emma Donnan.
More than 3,700 Indiana students who were expected to graduate last year left without diplomas. Most were clustered in just 61 schools.
Out of all high schools in the state, Muncie Central recorded the highest number of students in the class of 2018 leaving to home-school.
When students are recorded as leaving to home-school in Indiana, they’re left out of a school’s graduation calculations, as though they never attended at all.