North Carolina education officials say they may put an asterisk next to this year’s high school graduation rate if it decreases due to immigration enforcement.
The discussion took place during a State Board of Education presentation this week on the state’s goal of achieving a 92% graduation rate by 2030.
State Board of Education Vice Chair Alan Duncan raised concerns about immigration enforcement affecting student performance.
“I think many of us have heard from many of our counties that there has been some difficulty with some of our particularly Latino students who attend school this year, as a result of various activities that are occurring,” Duncan said.
More than 30,000 students were absent from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools on the Monday after Border Patrol agents arrived in November — roughly 20% of the district’s enrollment.
State Superintendent Mo Green said education leaders have discussed ways to contextualize any major shifts in student performance data tied to immigration enforcement activity.
“We’ve talked about things like putting an asterisk next to information with a dramatic change,” Green said. “So there are things that we’ve talked about, but until we actually see the data, we don’t want to make any move at this point.”
North Carolina’s high school graduation rate was 87.7% last school year.
