Retain one hundred, graduate sixteen

With another year's data, retained ninth-graders seem even less likely to graduate. The latest version of a grim trend looks like this:

• 5,615 retained ninth-graders in 2004 were followed by 893 late graduates in 2008.

That follows four previous rounds of bad news noted in last month's post on the same problem:

• 6,176 retained ninth-graders in 2000 were followed by 1,071 late graduates in 2004
• 5,697 retained ninth-graders in 2001 were followed by 952 late graduates in 2005.
• 5,540 retained ninth-graders in 2002 were followed by 1,026 late graduates in 2006.
• 5,106 retained ninth-graders in 2003 were followed by 864 late graduates in 2007.

We'd been averaging seventeen diplomas for each one hundred repeat ninth-graders. This year, only sixteen made it.

Note: the new nonacademic data from KDE, including the graduation numbers, can be found here.