The Indiana Department of Education this morning released graduation rates for high schools statewide, with the statistics putting the Duneland School rate at 83 percent.

Of the seven school corporations in Porter County, only the Portage Township Schools had a lower graduation rate than Duneland, at 81.1 percent. The East Porter County School Corporation had the highest rate in the county, at 92.3 percent, according to the Department of Education figures.

The Chesterton High School graduation rate was 73 percent the year before, a lower than ideal statistic that prompted Duneland school officials to improve the way that they track students. The figures released this morning show a 10 percent increase in the rate for Duneland from 2006 to 2007.

The Porter Township School Corporation also had an improved graduation rate, with an increase of 6.9 percent. All other Porter County corporations, however, showed a slight decrease in their graduation rates.

The “graduation rate” refers to high school students who graduate within four years. As noted at last week’s Duneland School Board meeting, a school’s graduation rate is negatively affected by students who take longer than four years to graduate or those who move to another school district and aren’t tracked by the original high school.

Statewide, the 2007 graduate rate was 76.5 percent, a 0.4 percent increase over the year before, the DOE said. Another 11.9 percent of high school students are reported as dropouts or “undetermined,” which means they either moved out of state or dropped out without formally withdrawing from school.

Another 7.3 percent statewide are still in school, according to the state figures.

The 2007 graduation rates for school corporations in Porter County are shown below, with the previous year’s in parentheses.

Duneland: 83.1 (73)

Valparaiso: 90.6 (92.2)

Portage: 81.1 (83)

Boone Township: 90.5 (90.8)

East Porter: 92.3 (93)

Porter Township: 88.5 (81.6)

Union Township: 89.4 (91.3)

The graduation rates for some other Northwest Indiana school corporations are below:

Michigan City: 59.7 (64.9)

LaPorte: 81.8 (72.8)

South Central: 89.5 (85.7)

Gary: 46.5 (50.6)

Munster: 95.7 (95.1)

Hobart: 78.9 (83.2)

Crown Point: 86.4 (89.1)

Merrillville: 77.7 (76.7)

East Chicago: 54.6 (59.5)

Hammond: 58.6 (61.5)

Lake Central: 83.4 (85.4)

Posted 1/22/2008