State Provides Wrong Numbers for Capuchino High Graduation Rates

The graduation numbers for Capuchino High School provided by the California Department of Education are incorrect according to Capuchino High principal Shamar Shanks.  The state report shows a graduation rate at the San Bruno high school that is 13 percentage points lower than the true rate. 

“We are aware of the report that was run by the CDE, but you should also know that the data that was published is inaccurate,” said Shanks in an email to Patch.  “Our district data was flawed a couple of years ago when we transferred to a new system and as a result our cohort graduation rate is inaccurate.” 

That inaccuracy led the state to report that Capuchino High had a graduation rate of 81 percent when in reality it is much higher according to the principal. 

The state number included 41 students who were enrolled as freshmen at Capuchino in the 2008/2009 school year but for unknown reasons, never attended classes at Capuchino according to Associate Superintendant for Instruction Andy Parsons.  

Parsons says when those 41 students are removed from the tally Capuchino has a graduation rate above 94 percent and a dropout rate of approximately 4 percent.

“Our district has since corrected the error, but it was too late to change it at the state level, so in all actuality our graduation rate for the Class of 2012 (cohort) is 94.3 percent,” Shanks said in the email. 

That ranks Capuchino as the third best school in the district.

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