D.C. Public Schools released Thursday a projected 2018 graduation rate of 42 percent, a figure nearly half of the related 2017 rate.

The school system estimates it will graduate 42 percent of its seniors in June, while 73 percent of its seniors received degrees in 2017, reported The Washington Post.

“The point of this is transparency,” D.C. Public Schools spokeswoman Michelle Lerner told WaPo.

D.C. Public Schools’ anticipated 42 percent graduation rate marks its lowest graduation rate in the past eight years. The rate had previously increased from 53 percent in 2011 to 73 percent in 2017.

The district has wrestled with an investigation into its grading practices for the past few months. At Ballou High School, the nexus of the scandal, the school system found policy violations in 113 of the 177 2017 graduates’ records. Teachers generally did not reduce the grades of students with excessive absences and Ballou awarded half-credit, instead of zero percent, for uncompleted assignments. (RELATED: DC Schools Graduating More And More Chronically Absent Students)

D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Antwan Wilson announced he would resign earlier in February after discovery that he had manipulated the district’s lottery system to obtain preferential treatment for his daughter’s school selection. The Daily Caller News Foundation reached out to D.C. Public Schools for further comment but received none in time for press.

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