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Graduation rate rebounds to 77% in 2024; district lays out strategies to reach 80% by 2029
Summary
District officials reported a rise in the four-year graduation rate from 68% (2023) to 77% (2024) and described interventions—credit recovery, internships, expanded advisory and course planning—aimed at returning to pre-pandemic levels for all student groups.
The St. Paul Public Schools board heard an update on Aug. 19 showing the district’s four-year graduation rate rose to 77% for the class of 2024, up from 68% in 2023 and back toward 2019 pre-pandemic levels.
Senior Executive Officer Collins presented the district’s five-year goal: increase the four-year graduation rate from 68% in 2023 to 80% in 2029. Collins said the 2024 improvement reverses three years of decline and attributed gains to work by staff, credit-recovery expansion, internships and targeted supports for ninth grade and at-risk students (presentation began at transcript time 4256.925).
Collins noted that graduation numbers are based on Minnesota Department of Education cohort calculations and that summer graduates are combined with prior-year reporting; certain programs (care-and-treatment) are excluded from the federal state data. She also said the district maintains longer graduation pathways—fifth, sixth and seventh-year options—and provides targeted credit-recovery courses during the school year and in summer. The district reported 106 summer graduates to be celebrated the week of the meeting.
The presentation highlighted subgroup changes: Asian, Black, free/reduced-price-lunch, special-education, multiracial and white student groups showed gains relative to 2019; American Indian students showed a 15-percentage-point drop since 2019 and English-language learners declined 5 percentage points since 2019. Board members asked for follow-up details on subgroup trends; staff said that data could be emailed.
Board members discussed cohort counting rules: students who leave and enroll in another Minnesota district are removed from SPPS cohorts if properly coded, while students who enroll from out-of-state after ninth grade are not included in the ninth-grade cohort calculation. Staff recommended the district continue monthly principal check-ins and use a public dashboard to track school-level trends.
The board did not vote on policy changes during this presentation; the report was informational.
