West Orange High Has Nearly 90-Percent Graduation Rate

West Orange High School has a graduation rate of 86.4-percent, according to the 2012-2013 graduation rates report from the New Jersey Department of Education. 

The nearly 90-percent rate is revealed after Gov. Chris Christie releases information on the increase in the overall graduation rate in New Jersey through the DOE.

New Jersey's high school graduation rates increased in 2013, rising from 86.5 percent in 2012 to 87.5 percent in 2013, according to a release from the NJDOE.

"High school graduation is a journey that takes more than a decade for an individual student, and at each point in that journey our teachers and principals are working hard to launch those students forward," said Commissioner Chris Cerf in the release. "Today, we celebrate those accomplishments and congratulate our students and educators."

This is the third year the state is using a federally mandated methodology for calculating the graduation rate. The federal methodology is designed to provide a more complete accounting of graduation rates by tracking cohorts of students over four years, starting from the time they enter the ninth grade, according to the release.

"We are grateful for all of the hard work among local school officials to maintain and submit high quality, student-level data," said Arcelio Aponte, President of the State Board of Education. "The effort at the local level benefits individual students, and it helps us more accurately mark the progress of all students throughout the state."

The release also stated that the DOE continued to work closely with districts to ensure accurate information is being provided. The Department's outreach this year included holding 42 webinars to train local school staff on how to properly record and input figures; direct support to districts that had not properly provided data; contacting any district with a one-year change in the graduation rate of more than 5 percent; contacting districts with large numbers of unverified transfers; and allowing all districts to challenge the figures.

A summary of graduation rates by student subgroups, according to the release, is as follows:

• 76.4% of African American students graduated in 2013, an increase from 74.6% in 2012.
• 78.6% of Hispanic students graduated in 2013, an increase from 76.7% in 2012.
• 93.1% of white students graduated in 2013, an increase from 92.6% in 2012.
• 95.9% of Asian students graduated in 2013, an increase from 95.3% in 2012.
• 77.1% of economically disadvantaged students graduated in 2013, an increase from 75.3% in 2012.
• 70.5% of Limited English Proficient (LEPs) students graduated in 2013, a decrease from 73.1% in 2012.
• 75.9% of students with disabilities graduated in 2013, an increase from 74.5% in 2012.