In March 2009, the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) issued its annual high school dropout statistics for the state, each school division, and each high school. This year’s report is notable for more than its statistical data: the VDOE report identifies, for the first time, the number of dropouts from a cohort (in this case, the class of students who began the ninth grade in 2004), rather than the total number of students dropping out in one year. Cohort dropout statistics were made available by a number of different student characteristics, including gender, race, ethnicity, and English language ability.