City Boasts of Record Graduation Rate, Critics Scoff

By ELIZABETH WEISS GREEN, Staff Reporter of the Sun | May 22, 2007

Mayor Bloomberg has declared that his investments in the city schools are paying off, announcing yesterday that the high school graduation rate for the class of 2006 hit a record, 60%. That rate is up 18% since Mr. Bloomberg took control of the public schools in 2002, when only 51% of high school seniors graduated in four years.

The numbers could buoy Mr. Bloomberg's quest to be known as the "education mayor" and to expand the school reforms he's led so far. "It really is a new day in this city," he said yesterday. "What we've gotta do is stay the course."

Some say the picture painted by the mayor is incomplete. When the state's education department released its graduation rate calculations last month, it showed a much lower figure, 50%, for city students. The discrepancy stems from a difference in calculation, according to state and city officials: While the city tally includes students who get an alternative general education diploma, known as a GED, and excludes special education students, the state does the opposite.

The New York City public advocate, Betsy Gotbaum, called the city's removal of special education students a "sleight of hand" and asked why the city's Department of Education "continued to tout a number that paints an inaccurate picture." Special-education students' four-year graduation rate was below 2% in 2006, the city reported.

The city will change its official method to match the state's calculations next year. But Mr. Bloomberg said the discrepancies are irrelevant, pointing out that both state and city calculations show a strong upward trend since 2002.

City figures show the increase is spread across all racial groups. Nearly 55% of black students graduated in 2006, compared with 44% of in 2002. The graduation rate of Hispanic students rose to nearly 51% in 2006 from 41% in 2002.

Yet a wide achievement gap persists; the graduation rates of white and Asian students were about 75% in 2006, while more than 30 high schools had four-year graduation rates of less than 40%.

Mr. Bloomberg presented the city's data at the headquarters of the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, whose members have just ratified a new contract, ending a four-year stalemate. Mr. Bloomberg, the schools chancellor, Joel Klein, and the CSA president, Ernest Logan, said the deal signaled a new era of cooperation.