District clarifies graduation figures after progress-monitoring projection differs from federally validated cohort rate

Superintendent Buck told the committee that an 84% figure shared at a recent internal update represented a progress-monitoring calculation (current seniors projected to graduate), not the federally mandated 4-year cohort graduation rate used for official public reporting.

"That calculation... can be a useful data point to monitor the number of current seniors who are on track to graduate," Buck said. He added that districts must use the federally mandated methodology when publicly reporting graduation rates and acknowledged the validated 2025 4-year cohort rate is 74.4 percent.

Members pressed whether the district should stop publishing both numbers publicly. Buck said internal progress indicators are useful for school-level monitoring but that public-facing reporting should use the federally mandated cohort method to avoid confusion. RIDE staff and committee members agreed this distinction should be made clear in future public communications.

Committee members and the superintendent discussed technical drivers of the cohort calculation, including how students who leave the district are counted and the timing of state validation. RIDE and district staff agreed to continue using internal metrics for monitoring while ensuring that public reports apply the validated federal methodology.