The Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) recently released their latest Graduation and Dropout Statistics Annual Report, which tracks the state graduation rate as well as individual rates for each school district.
This is Washington State OSPI’s third year tracking the data using a method set forth by new a nationally mandated standard. Basically, the new method tracks students who begin 9th grade in Washington, adjusts for transfers in and transfers out of school districts, and tracks how many graduate in four and five years.
Statewide, for the class of 2013, the 4-year graduation rate decreased slightly from 77.2% to 76%. Locally, it was some good news. The Snoqualmie Valley School District’s (SVSD) 4-year on-time graduation rate increased from 77% to 82%. SVSD’s 5-year graduation rate also improved slightly from 83% to 85%.
Washington’s national rank has not yet been released by the U.S. Department of Education, but last year Washington ranked fairly low for its 77% 4-year graduation rate, landing in the second to last quintile (21%-40%).
SVSD surpassed the state graduation rate in the newest rankings, but how did it compare on the hyper-local level?
SVSD 4-year on-time graduation rate (Class of 2013) and 5-year graduation rate (Class of 2012) : 81.7% / 85.1%
Neighboring (geographical borders) Western Washington School Districts 4 and 5-year Graduation Rates:
- Enumclaw School District: 81.2% / 88.1%
- Issaquah School District: 92.9% / 94.7%
- Lake Washington School District: 88.6% / 91.7%
- Riverview School District: 87.6% / 92%
- Tahoma School District: 87.7% / 90.7%
KingCo Conference (SVSD Athletic Conference) School Districts 4 and 5-year Graduation Rates:
- Bellevue School District: 88.9% / 89.9%
- Issaquah School District: 92.9% / 94.7%
- Lake Washington School District: 88.6% / 91.7%
- Mercer Island School District: 93% / 95.4%
- Northshore School District: 89.6% / 93.2%
- Seattle School District: 72.6% / 78.1%
Except for the Issaquah School District, all districts above have a higher percentage of students enrolled in the ‘Free or Reduced-Priced Meals’ program, which the WA State OSPI uses to gauge poverty in school districts, as studies show poverty affects high school graduation rates.
13.1% of Snoqualmie Valley students are enrolled in the program and about 10% are enrolled in Issaquah. Statewide, 46% of Washington students receive free or reduced-price meals.
Earlier this year, the Snoqualmie Valley School District created a Strategic Plan to serve as a road map and assess progress toward improvement goals. The district’s graduation rate was identified as one such improvement on its newly created Scorecard, which was designed as a snapshot of student performance across various grade levels and areas and will be measured against established targets.
