Students with disabilities and high school completion: Systemic analysis of one four-year cohort of special education students in a large, urban-fringe, school district

Controversy exists over calculation of dropout rates at the school district level for general education and special education populations. This extant data study compares calculation of special education high school leavers using the: true cohort rate; averaged freshman graduation rate; and the cumulative promotion index. Analyses of empirically identified institutional predictors of dropout within the systemic culture of a large urban fringe school district for students with disabilities are performed to discover patterns that preface school leaving. A contextually descriptive illustration of special education leavers in a four---year cohort is developed to understand factors that influence school completion.