High transfer and dropout rates at the MATCH Charter Public High School on Commonwealth Avenue have raised eyebrows at Boston Public Schools, prompting a strong rebuke from the district.

Two seniors from the school tried to transfer out just 14 days before graduation over the spring, raising questions about whether the standards MATCH demands from all graduating students are too difficult, MATCH officials said last June.

MATCH, which used to be called Media and Technology Charter High, has the highest number of transfers to district schools of any of the five charter schools in Boston, BPS spokesman Jonathan Palumbo said. The school was founded in 2000 and serves 220 students in grades nine through 12, 73 percent of whom are poor enough to qualify for reduced-price lunches, according to the school’s website.

‘Most of the charter schools have high standards, so why are more students transferring from MATCH?’ Palumbo said. ‘Schools with much larger populations are keeping them engaged, which MATCH seems to be having trouble with.’

Following the attempted transfers, BPS Superintendent Carol Johnson spoke to the school’s executive director, Alan Safran, ‘none too gently’ about what MATCH could do to keep students from transferring, Palumbo said. The two seniors contemplating transferring decided to stay at MATCH after conversations with Safran and Johnson.’

‘It all depends on how hard they are really fighting to keep kids at MATCH,’ Palumbo said. ‘It seemed to the superintendent that MATCH was just giving up on these kids.’

Safran said he admits ‘the workload is tough.’ Students are required to pass a minimum of two Advanced Placement classes and two Boston University classes. The minimum passing grade at MATCH is 70 percent, instead of the 65 percent that district schools demand.

‘We want our students to succeed beyond high school, and sometimes that means repeating a semester, or a year or two,’ Safran said. ‘It is better for them to spend six years here than to be unprepared for college.’

Though almost half of MATCH’s students transfer out of the school before graduation, more than 90 percent of those who stay graduate within four years, compared to about 4 percent for transfers, Safran said in an email. That figure ‘turns on its head’ the national graduation rate of 55 percent, he said.

Safran said MATCH want to encourage students to stay, but the lure of what he called ‘automatic promotion’ at district schools is too strong for some students to resist.

The Massachusetts Department of Education would address any problems with the school when it reviews its charter every five years, department spokeswoman Heidi Guarino said, but the department has not found any issues warranting its attention.