U.S. Secondary School Graduates and Dropouts for 2017-18

EDFacts GD:2017-18 provides cross-sectional data on students who graduated or dropped out of secondary education for the 2017-18 academic year. The dataset contains information aggregated at the school, local education agency (LEA), and state levels, derived from six data groups including Regulatory Cohort Graduation Rates and Graduate/Completer counts. Data submission by states is mandatory and linked to federal funding compliance.

Use Cases

• Analyze Regulatory Cohort Graduation Rate (Four, Five, and Six Year) trends across different states and LEAs.
• Compare Graduates/Completers counts against Dropout figures at the school level to identify performance disparities.
• Examine the distribution of student counts within the Regulatory Cohort Graduation Rate-Flex data group.
• Assess compliance and reporting patterns by correlating submission status with the mandatory EDFacts Submission System (ESS) process.

Strengths

• Data collection is mandatory for states, ensuring comprehensive national coverage for the 2017-18 period.
• Derived from six defined data groups, including multiple Regulatory Cohort Graduation Rate calculations.
• Aggregated at three administrative levels (school, LEA, state), enabling multi-scale analysis.
• Released under a CC-Zero license, allowing for unrestricted public use.

Limitations

• Specific row counts, column details, and sample data are unavailable, limiting preliminary assessment of dataset scale and structure.
• Data is from a single academic year (2017-18), preventing longitudinal or trend analysis without combining other releases.
• As one of 17 EDFacts topics, full context may require joining with other separate studies in the database.

Provenance

Source

U.S. Department of Education, via the EDFacts initiative.

Collection Method

Collected annually through the mandatory EDFacts Submission System (ESS) from state education agencies.

Time Range

2017-18 academic year.

Freshness

Data reflects the 2017-18 academic year; metadata was last updated on August 12, 2023.

Geography

United States, with state-level and sub-state (LEA, school) coverage.