What Is a Cohort?

• The definition that applies here is: a group of people with a common statistical characteristic. The characteristic for NCLB is the date a student entered high school (9th grade). For example, the 2007 district cohort for graduation rate purposes consists of all students, regardless of their current grade level, whose date of first entry into grade 9 anywhere was during the 2007-08 school year (July 1, 2007 through June 30, 2008). Once a student enrolls in your school, they remain in one of your cohorts until they enroll somewhere else. When a student leaves, it may be your job to find out where they went as not all schools will contact you when a student from your school enrolls. If you fail to run down a student who leaves, they will count as a dropout even if they enroll somewhere else.

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