Schools
Nicolet Above State Average in Graduation Rates
Nicolet topped state graduation average in 2009-2010 school year by 7.2 percent.
has exceeded the state’s average graduation rate by quite a large margin this year, but hasn't quite reached 100 percent.
The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction recently released the average graduation rates for the 2009-2010 school year. The “legacy” graduation rate, the standard since 2004, is 89.9 percent. That means Wisconsin had 64,687 public school students graduate, an 89.4 percent increase from 2008-2009.
However, according to Superintendent Rick Monroe, Nicolet saw 97.1 students graduate during the 2009-2010 school year. That’s a 7.2 percent increase over the state’s average.
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Monroe said considering there are things outside of the school’s control, like personal and health issues, he’s very happy with the 97.1 percent graduation rate at Nicolet.
“I would say, obviously I would love to have 100 percent for our legacy rating, but unfortunately there are situations,” explained Monroe. “The reality is there are students with circumstances that do interfere with them getting their diploma. Obviously our goal is to always have 100 percent, but 97.1 percent is great considering all the challenges kids have. I think we’re very satisfied.”
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The state began using the legacy rating system in 2004 to give a snapshot of how many students graduate each year. The former way of calculating the percentage, called the four-year adjusted rate, only accounts for students who graduate in four years. This percentage is usually lower because of the number of “at risk” students, or students with special needs.
Monroe says the four-year adjusted rate isn’t a very good indicator of the school.
“The adjusted rate can be very misleading because Nicolet has a significant special education population,” said Monroe. “Some schools even send their kids to our school for special education. They’re allowed to stay until they’re 21 years old to get the education they need, it shows up on the four-year adjusted rate and it’ll bring that number down. Our adjusted rate is 91.7 percent.”
The new standard, called the legacy rate, accounts for how many students get a diploma from the school including students with special education, and this year, Nicolet did far above average, at 97.1 percent.
