New Mexico implemented its first 4-year cohort graduation rate in 2008, and rates prior to that year are not comparable. A cohort is named by students' expected fourth year of high school; for example the "Class of 2013" is also the "Cohort of 2013." Cohorts are tracked for one additional year past their expected year of graduation, yielding 5-year and 6-year graduation rates for the same cohort of students.
Key features of New Mexico's Shared Accountability model are that
- all schools with any grade 9, 10, 11, or 12 receive a rate;
- student outcomes are distributed proportionally to all high schools they attend; and
- all students entering New Mexico public high schools, in any grade, become members of an on-time cohort.
For more information on historic changes in the calculation of graduation rates, please see Instructional Guides.