Technical Guide for the 2008-09 Florida High School Graduation Rate 
http://www.fldoe.org/eias/eiaspubs/default.asp#datatech
Accountability, Research, and Measurement
Education Information and Accountability Services

October 2009
Florida Department of Education
Tallahassee, Florida
Eric Smith, Commissioner
www.fldoe.org

Contents
Introduction
Applicable DOE Database Reporting Formats and Data Elements
DOE Programming Steps
Electronically Viewable Reports for Districts
Submitting Corrections
Requesting Reports for Viewing/Downloading to Verify Corrections
Attachment 1
*The abbreviation DOE designates the Florida Department of Education.

Introduction
This guide is designed to help MIS and program personnel understand data collection procedures and programming for calculating Florida’s high school graduation rate. Note that beginning with the 1998-99 school year, Florida implemented a cohort-based method for calculating the rate based on the compilation and tracking of individual student records.
Ideally, the graduation rate calculation should account for every student entering and leaving the school population.  The calculation is designed to account for students who transfer out of the school population by removing them from the group of students (cohort) for which the school district is held responsible.  Likewise, students who transfer into the school population are added to the cohort by being included in the count of the class with which they were initially scheduled to graduate (i.e., upon entry).  For example, a 10th grader who transfers into the district will be included with the 4-year cohort of students who entered ninth grade for the first time during the previous year. 
Determining the denominator for the formula involves the following steps:  determine the cohort of students who enrolled as first-time ninth-graders four years prior to the year for which the graduation rate is to be measured; add to this group any subsequent incoming transfer students who are on the same schedule to graduate; and subtract students who transfer out for various reasons or who are deceased.  The numerator simply consists of the number of graduates from this group. Information on the programming used to execute these calculations is provided in the section on DOE programming steps (p. 3). 
Districts will be able to review and verify the data used in formulating the graduation rate by viewing/downloading customized files as described in the section titled “Electronically Viewable Reports for Districts” (p. 5). 

Applicable DOE Database Reporting Formats and Data Elements
The specific reporting formats and data elements used in the department’s programming for the graduation rate are listed below.  Reporting format titles are highlighted in boldface type.  Data elements are italicized.
Student Demographic Information
District Number, Current Enrollment
School Number, Current Enrollment
Student Number Identifier, Florida
Survey Period Code
Grade Level
Year
Student Number Identifier—Alias, Florida
Additional School Year Student
Student Course Schedule
District Number, Current Enrollment
School Number, Current Enrollment
Student Number Identifier, Florida
Survey Period Code
Fiscal Year
Course Number

Prior School Status/Student Attendance
District Number, Current Enrollment
School Number, Current Enrollment
Student Number Identifier, Florida
School Year
Survey Period Code
Withdrawal Code, PK-12
Withdrawal Date
Student End of Year Status
District Number, Current Enrollment
School Number, Current Enrollment
Student Number Identifier, Florida
School Year
Survey Period Code (always 5)
Grade Promotion Status
Diploma Type:
W06, W07, W10, WGA, WGD, W27, W43, W45, W52, WFW, WFT, W6A, W6B, WFA, WFB
Withdrawal Reason
Grade Level
Withdrawal Date

DOE Programming Steps
(general description of process)
1.	Pull 9th graders using fall survey data (Survey 2 data from Student Demographic Information) submitted for the year four years prior to the year of graduation.
2.	Check to ensure that students are actually enrolled during Survey 2 in the beginning year of the cohort by verifying that the students have course records on the Student Course Schedule format.
Steps 1 and 2 provide the initial cohort of students to be tracked over four years.
3.	Pull out 9th grade repeaters from this group by looking for retentions from the prior year’s Student End of Year Status format, using the Grade Promotion Status data element (coded “R”s for students who are retained), and also by matching against any students who were coded as 9th graders the prior year, again using Student End of Year Status records.
4.	Review the Student End of Year Status format for each of the four years covered to identify incoming transfers on the same schedule to graduate as students in the initial cohort.
Data elements used in this step are the following:

•	District Number, Current Enrollment   
	Student Number Identifier, Florida
•	School Number, Current Enrollment
•	Grade Level
Add the incoming transfers to the group of students being tracked (cohort).
5.	For this combined population, use the Student Attendance format to determine Withdrawal Codes and the Student End of Year Status format to determine Withdrawal Reason and Diploma Type.
6.	Classify students in this population according to where they belong in the following groups.  (Applicable withdrawal codes are shown in parentheses.)
•	Graduates (W06, W07, W10, W27, WGA, WGD, W43, W45, W52, WFW, WFT, W6A, W6B, WFA, WFB)  NOTE:  Diploma Codes will differ between the NCLB and NGA rates
•	Dropouts (DNE, W05, W13-W23)  
•	Students transferring out of the district (W3A, W3B)
(Programming will count students only once within the district and ensure an unduplicated count of students to be used for the district- and school-level graduation rate.)
•	Deceased students (W12)
•	Students who left to enroll in a private school (W04)
•	Students who left to enroll in a home education program (W24)
•	Students who left to enroll in an adult education program (W26)
•	Additional School Year Students (codes S or F) – this step was added to ensure students were not pulled into a second cohort
Any student who is not classified in one of the above categories is considered a non-graduate.
7.	Determine the adjusted cohort to provide a denominator for the calculation.  The adjusted cohort is determined by adding all the students from steps 1 through 5 and then subtracting students in the following categories:
•	Students transferring out of the district (W3A, W3B)
(Programming will count students only once within the district and ensure an unduplicated count of students, using the Student Number Identifier, Alias, to be used for the district- and school-level graduation rate.)
•	Deceased students (W12)
•	Students who left to enroll in a private school (W04)
•	Students who left to enroll in a home education program (W24)
•	Students who left to enroll in an adult education program (W26).
NOTE: W45’s are completely removed from the cohort for the NCLB and NGA calculations.
Education Data Warehouse performs matching process to check for duplicates throughout the state to ensure each student is counted in only one cohort.  Duplicates are then removed from the cohort prior to calculations.
8.	Determine the graduation rate by performing the following calculation:
Number of graduates*   number of students in the adjusted cohort.
*Diploma Codes for the Florida Calculation:
W06, W07, W10, W27, WGA, WGD, W43, W45, W52, WFW, WFT, W6A, W6B, WFA, WFB
*Diploma Codes for the NCLB Calculation: (does not include special diplomas):
W06, W10, WGA, WGD, W43, W52, WFW, WFT, W6A, W6B, WFA, WFB
*Diploma Codes for the Modified NCLB Calculation/NGA (does not include GED based diplomas):
W06, W07, W27, W43, W52, WFW, WFT, W6A, W6B, WFA, WFB

Electronically Viewable Reports for Districts
Authorized data-management personnel in Florida’s school districts have access to a set of electronic files that provide a breakdown of the population of students being tracked by diploma type, withdrawal reason, and withdrawal code over the four-year period applicable to the graduation rate.  A unique file set is available for each district showing students included in the district’s cohort (file series F63494).  This file series includes a data file ordered by student ID number (suffix .DATA), a report file ordered by student name (suffix .ALPHA), and a report file ordered by school and then by student name.  The “alpha” file/report may be particularly useful in showing duplications—i.e., students with the same name and different ID numbers.  The column headings on each report show the district number and name, the school number, the student ID number (Student Number Identifier, Florida), the student’s last name, the student’s first name, the student’s alias ID number (Student Number Identifier—Alias, Florida), the student’s gender, race, and birth date, and the student’s final classification based on the most recent withdrawal code/reason on record.  Here is an example of how the data appears in the report files:
FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
COHORT GRADUATION RATE  USING A  SCHEDULED TO GRADUATE  POPULATION

Heading/title 

[additional headings]

Data 

A:  ATTENDANCE WITHDRAWAL CODE       D:  DIPLOMA TYPE
C:  CERTIFICATE TYPE      E:  EOY WITHDRAWAL REASON
DIST	DIST NAME	SCHOOL	STUID	LAST NAME	FIRST NAME	ALIAS	GENDER	RACE	BIRTH DATE	FINAL STATUS	
64	VOLUSIA	6633	123456789x	DOE	JANE	6477543210	F	H	19890511	W06	
Y1: A-W01 D-ZZZ C-ZZZ E-ZZZ  |  Y2: A-W01 D-ZZZ C-ZZZ E-ZZZ  |  Y3: A-W01 D-ZZZ C-ZZZ E-ZZZ  |  Y4: A-W06 D-W06C-ZZZ E-ZZZ	
	VOLUSIA	6633	113456789x	DOE	JOHN	6476543210	M	W	19890312	W06	
Y1: A-W01 D-ZZZ C-ZZZ E-ZZZ  |  Y2: A-W01 D-ZZZ C-ZZZ E-ZZZ  |  Y3: A-W01 D-ZZZ C-ZZZ E-ZZZ  |  Y4: A-W06 D-W06C-ZZZ E-ZZZ	
The example above shows data for two students.  Two lines/rows of data are provided for each student, with the second line showing the withdrawal codes for the student over the four-year span applicable to the graduation rate tracking. 
The raw data file, DPS##.GQ.F63494.Y08095.DATA can be downloaded into Access or Excel for data review.
Submitting Corrections 
Corrections for the archived files are to be submitted in the same manner that current year batch updates are submitted.  The formats, elements, edits, and validations that were in effect for a specific year must still be adhered to when submitting updates for that year.  Edits and validations that were in place in 2005-06 will still be applicable for your 2005-06 batch submissions.  File names for the formats are the same as for the current year data files.
Requesting Reports for Viewing/Downloading to Verify Corrections
The schedule for updates to the report is included in the timeline beginning on p. 8 of this publication. For additional questions, contact Education Information and Accountability Services at (850) 245-0400.

Attachment 1
Revised Timeline for 2008-09 Graduation Rate Updates and Calculations
February 28, 2009	Close of 2007-08 Survey 5
April 7, 2009	Memo 
May 11, 2009	Cohort graduation rate preliminary files and archived records available to update*
June 19-July 24, 2009	Window for update to archived files 
(Batches submitted by 9:00 PM (EDT) on Fridays will be processed over the weekend, except for July 4 weekend)
July 13 & 20, 2009	Updated reports/file available for the 3 years of archived files. 
August 7, 2009	Due date for 2008-09 Survey 5. Updates must be received by 9:00 PM (EDT).
August 24, 2009	Dropout Match Report from Survey 5 available.
September 4, 2009	Close of 2008-09 Survey 5 state processing window
September 9, 2009	1st set of preliminary graduate rates and initial reports** available for review only (see below for list)
September 14, 2009	Dropout Match Report from Survey 6 available.
September 21, 2009	Final set of preliminary graduate rates and initial reports** available for review only (see below for list)
Sept. 8 – 25, 2009	Update window for 2008-09 Survey 5 and archived files.  Updates will be accepted for graduation rate purposes only and must be received by 9:00 PM.  NOTE:  Updates will be processed over the weekend.
October 2009 	2008-09 final graduation rate and final reports** are released, contingent on review by the Office of the Commissioner of Education.  NOTE:  This date is subject to change.
*Preliminary Files
Survey 5 2008-09 data will not be available until after the close of the state processing window in September.  Please keep in mind that when you eventually receive your report containing all students in the cohort, the students in the preliminary file might have a different status.
DPS##.GQ.F63494.Y08095	unadjusted cohort sorted by school number and last name
DPS##.GQ.F63494.Y08095.ALPHA	unadjusted cohort sorted by last name
DPS##.GQ.F63494.Y08095.DATA*	raw data file

Layout of Data file in DPS.DISTRICT.FORMAT.Y0809.F63494
*Archived Records for Use in Updating
DPS##.GQ.F60775O  Student Demographic Information
DPS##.GQ.F60953O  Student End-of-Year Status
DPS##.GQ.F70214O  Prior School Status/Student Attendance 
Data sets in original format available for download. 
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