A Look at the Data Behind Lynn Fecteau-Leary's 19.4% Graduation Rate

In an article in this week's Daily Item regarding graduation rates in Lynn, reporter Gayla Crawley noted:

"Four years ago, then-Superintendent Dr. Catherine C. Latham addressed the district’s significant influx of English Language Learners (ELLs), one of its two lowest performing subgroups, by placing a large number of those students at Fecteau-Leary for space concerns.

Some of those students would have attended Classical otherwise, and a majority of those ELLs have dropped out since that time. While most other aspects of Fecteau-Leary’s graduation data remained steady last year, [Lynn School Superintendent Patrick] Tutwiler said their ELL graduation rate was zero, which “brought their data way down.”

Looking at the data, the number of English Learner (EL) students at Fecteau-Leary increased during the 2015-16 school year considerably and even further the next year. Since 2017, however, the number of EL students enrolled has decreased to enrollment numbers similar to 2014. 

Graduation rates are calculated in terms of the percentage of students who entered 9th grade for the first time in the same year who are then expected to graduate four years later. The graduating cohort is, therefore, that group of 9th graders being monitored over time. 

Over the last decade, the number of EL students in the graduating cohort has remained between 0 and 2 until the 2019 graduating cohort. Last year, there were 11 students who began high school in 2015 and were expected to graduate in 2019 at Fecteau-Leary. In 2019, the graduation rate for EL students at Fecteau-Leary was 0%; 81.8% of these students dropped out between 2015 and 2019. To clear up any misconceptions, however, the graduation rate for Hispanic/Latino students, separate from the EL rate, was 19%. 

Overall, Fecteau-Leary's 4-year graduation rate for all students was 19.4% last year compared to 34.1% the previous year. In reference to Tutwiler's comment about this bringing the data way down, if all of the EL students in last year's cohort graduated, Fecteau-Leary's graduation rate would have been closer to 50% overall. 

The school's EL population, which was 56.2% in 2016-17, is just 8.6% in 2019-20. It will be interesting to see how this change in student demographics will ultimately affect Fecteau-Leary's graduation rate in a few years. 

Source: www.doe.mass.edu