A2. High School Graduates

National

Projections of public high school graduates were developed in the following manner. The number of public high school graduates was expressed as a percent of grade 12 enrollment in public schools for 1972 to 1999. This percent was projected using single exponential smoothing and applied to projections of grade 12 enrollment to yield projections of high school graduates in public schools. (This percent does not make any specific assumptions regarding the dropout rate. The effect of the 12th grade dropout proportion is reflected implicitly in the graduate proportion.) The grade 12 enrollment was projected based on grade progression rates. This percent was assumed to remain constant at levels consistent with the most recent rates. This method assumes that past trends in factors affecting graduation ratios, such as dropouts, migration, and public/private transfers will continue over the projection period. In addition to student behaviors, the projected number of graduates could be impacted by changes in policies affecting graduation requirements.

The number of private high school graduates was expressed as a percent of grade 12 enrollment in private schools for 1989 to 1999. This percent was projected using single exponential smoothing and applied to projections of grade 12 enrollment to yield projections of high school graduates in private schools. (This percent does not make any specific assumptions regarding the dropout rate. The effect of the 12th grade dropout proportion is reflected implicitly in the graduate proportion.) The grade 12 enrollment was projected based on grade progression rates. This percent was assumed to remain constant at levels consistent with the most recent rates. This method assumes that past trends in factors affecting graduation ratios, such as dropouts, migration, and public/private transfers will continue over the projection period. In addition to student behaviors, the projected number of graduates could be impacted by changes in policies affecting graduation requirements.

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Projection Accuracy

An analysis of projections from models used in the past 18 editions of Projections of Education Statistics indicates that the mean absolute percentage errors (MAPEs) for projections of public high school graduates were 0.7 percent for 1 year ahead, 0.9 percent for 2 years ahead, 1.7 percent for 5 years ahead, and 4.1 percent for 10 years ahead. For the 1-year-ahead prediction, this means that one would expect the projection to be within 0.7 percent of the actual value, on the average. For more information on the mean absolute percentage errors, see table A2.

State-Level

This edition contains projections of high school graduates from public schools by state from 1999-2000 to 2010-11. Public school graduate data from the National Center for Education Statistics' Common Core of Data survey for 1969-70 to 1998-99 were used to develop these projections. This survey does not collect graduate data for private schools.

Projections of public high school graduates by state were developed in the following manner. For each state, the number of public high school graduates was expressed as a percent of grade 12 enrollment in public schools for 1970 to 1999. This percent was projected using single exponential smoothing and applied to projections of grade 12 enrollment to yield projections of high school graduates in public schools. Projections of grade 12 enrollment were developed based on the grade progression rates discussed in section A1, Enrollment. This percent was assumed to remain constant at levels consistent with the most recent rates. This method assumes that past trends in factors affecting public high school graduates will continue over the projection period.

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