Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
District graduation rate rises overall but Native American and ELL gaps widened, board told
Summary
Lawrence Public Schools reported improved long-term 4- and 5-year graduation rates overall but highlighted widening disparities for Native American students and current English learners; administrators outlined targeted interventions including summer credit recovery and diploma-completion pathways.
Lawrence Public Schools administrators presented the district’s 2024 graduation and equity report Monday, showing a long-term upward trend in four-year on-time graduation rates while identifying persistent and in some cases widening gaps for Native American students and English language learners.
The findings: Director of data and assessment James Polk summarized multi-year data showing a districtwide increase in four-year on-time graduation since 2019 and gains in five-year cohort graduation as well. Polk said the district’s four-year rate improved about 4.5 percentage points since 2019 and five-year rate rose roughly 3.8 percentage points.
Gaps that concern the district: Polk and Superintendent Krishawn Swift said the largest recent declines were concentrated in two groups: Native American students and current English language learners (ELLs). Polk noted that a drop in Native American graduation from 87.8% to 74.2% represented a difference of three students in the cohort but nonetheless…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
