Graduation rate data was released for NYC and NYS yesterday and the news was great for NYC: graduation rates, which have been rising steadily, and dropout rates, which have been falling steadily, ever since Bloomberg and Klein took over, continued their positive trends for EVERY type of student (by race/ethnicity, ELL, special ed, etc. Here's the NYT article and the press release is at: http://schools.nyc.gov/Offices/mediarelations/NewsandSpeeches/2009-2010/09gradrates030910.htm:

For the fifth year in a row, New York City students' on-time graduation rates have increased, showing small but steady gains, rising to 59 percent last year from 46.5 for the class of 2005, according to figures that state and city education officials released on Tuesday.

In 2008, 56.4 percent of the city's students graduated within four years.

Over all, the state graduation rate has also climbed incrementally: roughly 72 percent of the class of 2009 graduated on time, compared with 66 percent in 2005. But the improvements appeared to have slowed, increasing less than one percentage point from the 71 percent of students who graduated on time in 2008.

While Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg acknowledged that more improvements were needed, he appeared jubilant during a news conference at the Education Department's headquarters.

"The results for New York City are historic," the mayor said. "If this doesn't put a smile on everybody in New York's face, I don't know what will."

As he jumped enthusiastically from one chart to the next, Mr. Bloomberg emphasized that the city was outpacing the rest of the state in graduation rate improvements. And he was eager to make a connection between the improvements and his takeover of the city schools. Graduation rates hovered around 50 percent from 1992 to 2002, according to the city's figures.

"For 10 years — nothing happened," he said. "There is still big room for improvement. Nobody should think the job is done. The job will never be done, but we're on the right track."

For more details, see the 11-page slide presentation posted at: http://schools.nyc.gov/Accountability/Reports/Data/Graduation/GRAD_RATES_2009_HIGHLIGHTS.pdf

There are two particularly noteworthy sides. One shows how NYC flat-lined for 10 years before Bloomberg, Klein and mayoral control. The second, given that graduation data can be calculated in different ways that can make year-to-year comparisons suspect, or schools might be benefitting from some external trend, this this slide shows NYC's large gains over the past five years vs. flat for the state overall as well as its 4 largest cities.

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March 9, 2010