High school grad rates up again, but there is even more to celebrate

District’s program completion rate is 94.6%; 39 Citrus County students graduate due to FL DOE special exemptions

This past week Florida’s 2019-20 Federal Uniform Graduation rate data was released at http://bit.ly/22IVwOJ. The results showed that Florida’s statewide graduation rate has risen once again and that Citrus County Schools are now at a 17-year high of 87.1%. While this is a reason to celebrate, there is even more to share and celebrate.

It is important to understand that the Federal Uniform Graduation rate is not the full graduation and high school completion rate. It only gives the rate for students that graduated in 4-years with a standard Florida high school diploma. It does not include students that graduated in the summer after graduation, those who earned their G.E.D., vocational transfer students, or other graduates.

Florida’s statewide graduation rate climbed to 90 percent, an increase of 30.5 percentage points since 2003-04 and 3.1 percentage points over last year.  Citrus County rose to 87.1 and 1.1 percentage points from the previous year, 2018-19.  Citrus County’s average rate includes our three public high schools, CREST, Cypress Creek Detention Center, Renaissance Center, E-Nini Hassee, and the former Citrus MYcroSchool Charter School.

Crystal River High School’s Federal Uniform Graduation rate climbed to 89.7 percent, an impressive 2.0 percentage points higher from 2018-19. Citrus High School’s graduation rate was maintained at 92 percent.  Lecanto High School’s graduation rate was the highest at 93.1 percent. That is an average of 91.7 percent for our three traditional high schools.

I am also grateful that the Florida Department of Education and Commissioner Richard Corcoran provided special exemptions because of the COVID pandemic permitting the class of 2020 students to graduate pausing some of the state assessment requirements. In Citrus County, 39 students (4%) from across our district received high school diplomas as a result. I am praying either the Florida legislature or FL-DOE/Commissioner Corcoran again provide exemptions for the class of 2021 students, pausing state assessment requirements for graduation.

While these Federal Uniform Graduation rates are encouraging, what I am even more proud of is our District’s programs’ “Completion Rate”.  As a District, and School Board, we do not simply focus on the Federal Uniform Graduation data– we look at the successful completion rate of all our students.  If you combine all of those rates for this past year, it was 94.6 percent, which includes GED-based diplomas (1.3%), certificates of completion (0.4%), still enrolled in school (4.5%), and those at transferred to an adult education program (1.4%).

These programs better represent all of our students’ completion work and are the true testament of the successes in our education community and with our students.

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