High Schools in the United States: How does your local high school measure up?

What is Promoting Power?

Promoting power compares the number of 12th grade students in a school to the number of 9th graders three years earlier. It is designed to estimate the proportion of high school students who make it to their senior year. For example, if a school's promoting power is 80 percent it means that the number of 12th graders is 80 percent of the number of 9th graders three years before. If a school does not have a 9th grade, the indicator is calculated as the ratio of 12th to 10th graders instead. It is not a graduation rate because it does not measure how many students received diplomas.

Class of 2007 Promoting Power =

# of students in grade twelve in the 2006-07 school year
# of students in grade nine in the 2003-04 school year

The promoting power indicator was originally developed by a team of researchers lead by Robert Balfanz and Nettie Legters, then of Johns Hopkins University. Detailed information and analysis can be found at the Everyone Graduates Center: http://www.every1graduates.org/index.html.

Why is Promoting Power Used?

There is currently no graduation rate calculation that is used for every school in the country-the way graduation rates are computed differs by state, rendering apples to oranges comparisons. However, by drawing on a national database, promoting power can be used to consistently approximate how many students are making it to graduation on time for schools across the country. This indicator allows researchers to identify schools, districts, and regions that may be struggling to graduate their students. Although it is only an estimate of graduation rates, and one that can be affected by other factors (see "data limitations" below), having a low promoting power should serve as a "check engine" light for a school.

Review the frequently asked questions about promoting power to learn more. 

To determine the promoting power for high schools in a specific state or congressional district, use the search tools below.

NOTE: Conservative reporting: 3-yr average vs 1-yr. promoting power

In order to mitigate data anomalies that might particularly affect one year of promoting power (such as a neighboring school closing), researchers also calculate a 3-year promoting power average. The Alliance reports this average to give a clearer picture of promoting power in a school over time, and average out some of the enrollment changes that may occur from year to year. When data for all three years was not available, the three-year average represents data for only one or two years. In some cases, the three-year average includes data that was suppressed for a particular year because the promoting power fell outside of the normal range of 15 to 115 percent.

Zip	State	County	High School	Congressional District	3-Year Average	2007	2006	2005
20001	DC	DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA	PRE-ENGINEERING SWSC DUNBAR	01	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
20001	DC	DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA	BANNEKER HIGH SCHOOL	01	82.80	72.70	81.50	94.20
20001	DC	DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA	WASHINGTON, M.M. SHS	01	102.90	N/A	91.30	98.60
20001	DC	DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA	MAYA ANGELOU PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL	DL	92.10	N/A	66.70	59.60
20001	DC	DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA	DUNBAR HIGH SCHOOL	01	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
20002	DC	DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA	SPINGARN HIGH SCHOOL	01	109.10	86.40	95.00	N/A
20002	DC	DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA	EDISON-FRIENDSHIP PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL	DL	78.10	83.00	73.10	N/A
20002	DC	DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA	CHILD & FAMILY SERVICES (REGULAR EDUCATION)	DL	65.20	65.20	N/A	N/A
20003	DC	DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA	EASTERN HIGH SCHOOL	01	73.80	60.60	79.40	81.50
20003	DC	DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA	WASHINGTON MATH/SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY PCS	DL	N/A	105.60	N/A	106.10
20004	DC	DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA	MARRIOTT HOSPITALITY PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL	DL	N/A	N/A	103.70	113.00
20007	DC	DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA	ELLINGTON SCHOOL OF THE ARTS	01	78.50	75.80	80.20	79.50
20009	DC	DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA	CARDOZO HIGH SCHOOL	01	67.30	72.20	67.60	62.00
20009	DC	DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA	CESAR CHAVEZ PUBLIC POLICY PCS	DL	76.00	N/A	73.40	37.80
20009	DC	DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA	BOOKER T. WASHINGTON PCS	DL	104.80	N/A	107.70	81.80
20010	DC	DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA	BELL HIGH SCHOOL	01	45.90	35.20	52.90	49.80
20011	DC	DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA	ROOSEVELT HIGH SCHOOL	01	74.00	79.90	64.30	77.90
20011	DC	DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA	KAMIT INSTITUTE PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL	DL	N/A	105.40	N/A	N/A
20011	DC	DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA	COOLIDGE HIGH SCHOOL	01	69.90	65.10	73.80	70.70
20016	DC	DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA	WILSON HIGH SCHOOL	01	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
20019	DC	DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA	INTEGRATED DESIGN ELECTRONICS ACADEMY PCS	DL	35.50	28.40	28.00	50.00
20019	DC	DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA	SEED PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL	DL	54.20	26.70	67.60	68.40
20019	DC	DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA	BUSINESS & FIN. SWSC WOODSON	01	N/A	100.00	N/A	N/A
20019	DC	DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA	WOODSON HIGH SCHOOL	01	47.40	59.50	40.90	41.80
20020	DC	DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA	ANACOSTIA HIGH SCHOOL	01	67.30	79.50	74.20	48.10
20032	DC	DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA	THURGOOD MARSHALL ACADEMY PCS	DL	49.90	53.90	44.40	51.40
20032	DC	DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA	BALLOU HIGH SCHOOL	01	50.50	55.90	50.60	45.10
20037	DC	DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA	SCHOOL WITHOUT WALLS	01	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A