Graduation rate rises to 82% as dropout rate falls; gaps remain for exceptional learners

District data presented Wednesday showed gains on two key high-school outcomes: the four-year graduation rate rose to 82.0% from 78.6% the previous year, and the cohort dropout rate fell to 3.3% from 3.9%.

Bob St. Lawrence and Alisa, the district's strategic data leader, attributed some gains to recent policy changes (including adjustments to graduation testing requirements) and to local interventions. Alisa emphasized subgroup results: graduation-rate gaps compared with the state narrowed substantially for African-American and Hispanic students and were close for low-income students and multilingual learners; the district still faces a larger gap for exceptional learners.

"We saw the district increase from 78.6 to 82.0, a very significant increase," staff said in presenting the charted results. School-level data showed most schools improving by three percentage points or more; Central High increased by 6.4 points and the Conservatory recorded a 100% graduation rate for 2025.

Staff advised that some small-cohort scores (for specialized programs) can swing sharply from year to year and urged caution in comparing small samples. The committee responded positively and asked staff to continue disaggregated monitoring and to report on interventions aimed at exceptional learners.

Ending: Staff said they will continue progress monitoring, and committee members praised the trend while noting work remains to address equity gaps for students with disabilities.

Speakers quoted (first reference): Bob St. Lawrence; Alisa (administrator for strategic data).