In May of 2016, then-San Diego Unified Superintendent Cindy Marten touted a jaw-dropping statistic: 92 percent of the class of 2016 was on track to graduate.

That graduation rate, one of the premier statistics by which schools are judged, was a stunning accomplishment for two reasons.

One, it was nearly 10 points higher than the statewide average. Two, the district had pulled off the marquee accomplishment even as it adopted more rigorous graduation standards. More students were graduating even though district officials had made it more difficult to do so, according to the statistics.

But as then-education reporter Mario Koran revealed in a series of stories over the following year, that sky-high graduation rate wasn’t what it seemed.

Not only had thousands of students who started as n

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