90% of graduating seniors are accepted into college

Brooklyn Generation (BGS) is one of the small schools that replaced a large failing school – South Shore High School.  Brooklyn Generation School has been phased in slowly, grade-by-grade over the past four years. Historically (2001 to 2006) only 10%  of students received a Regents diploma, and only one-third of students who entered in 9^th grade had graduated on time.

In the short time BGS  has been on the campus:

• Students receiving a Regents diploma has increased four-fold
• The cohort that is graduating on time has almost doubled.

Looking at cumulative graduation results from 2001 to 2006 before Generation Schools started at South Shore: 753 students graduated, 10% of their students received a Regents diploma, 33% of the cohort graduated on time,  and 25% of the cohort dropped out.

Our First Graduation!

On June 29, 2011, Brooklyn Generation held its first graduation ceremony in a heartfelt celebration at the Brooklyn Museum.

• 45 students graduated
• 87% of all Seniors graduated
• 3 out of 4 graduates (75%) received a Regents diploma
• An additional three students earned their GED.

Generation Schools Uses the New Federal Standards for Calculating Graduation Rates

As a national organization, Generation Schools employs a measure that is comparable across states developed by the National Governors’ Association:

How Does NYC Calculate Its Graduation Rate?

In New York City, the Department of Education determines a high school’s graduation rate by looking at cohort data. A cohort consists of all students who first entered ninth grade in a given school year.

For example, cohort data for the graduating Class of 2011 (Known as Cohort M in NYC) includes all ninth grade students who started high school in 2007-2008. All students who graduate in June or August are included in the cohort’s graduation rate.

All students remain in the cohort – even if the student changes high schools or drops out.

New York City’s calculation includes Local and Regents diplomas, GEDs, and special education (IEP) diplomas. It does not include disabled students in self-contained classrooms or District 75 students (students who are on the autism spectrum, severely challenged, and/or multi-disabled).

Progress Report 2010-11

In October 2011, NYC DOE reported a 55.1% four-year cohort graduation rate for Brooklyn Generation. The BGS Cohort M had 78 students in Fall 2007; 43 of these graduated with Regents or local diplomas; 10 students are still working toward graduation this year; and still others transferred to other schools and are still factored into the rate for BGS.

What’s Next?

Under the leadership of a new principal, continuous improvement efforts are underway to improve not only the graduation rate, but the percentage of graduating students who are college-ready.  We know this will take time.

When the school is fully enrolled there will be 460 students or 115 in each graduating class.