CHEYENNE – High school graduation rates in Wyoming increased slightly for the 2014-15 school year, according to information released by the Wyoming Department of Education today.
“We applaud the efforts of our high schools to graduate more students last year, however we are not where we want to be,” said State Superintendent Jillian Balow. “Graduation is the gateway to next steps: college, career, and military. Every student should be graduating from high school. We will intensify our support to struggling schools and focus on diversifying education experiences for students.”
The Every Student Succeeds Act requires close monitoring of graduation rates and intentional work to ensure individual student growth.
Wyoming’s “on-time” graduation rate of 79.41 percent in 2014-15 is up from the 2013-14 rate of 78.6 percent, and the 2012-13 rate of 77.5 percent.
In Sweetwater County, Green River High School’s graduation rate was above the state average, and Rock Springs High School was slightly below the average.
Below are the graduation rates for high schools in Sweetwater County:
Sweetwater County School District # 1: 73.31%
- Black Butte High School: 39.02%
- Farson-Eden High School: 91.67%
- Rock Springs High School: 77.23 %
Sweetwater County School District #2: 87.26%
- Expedition Academy: 54.84%
- Green River High School: 92.82%
During a press conference today, staff from the Wyoming Department of Education, including State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow, discussed graduation rates. During the conference, Balow said those schools and districts that fall below the benchmark will be of focus for the WDE. The benchmark graduation rate set by the Every Child Succeeds Act is 67%.
Schools that fell below the 67% benchmark are:
- Whiting High School (Albany County # 1): 35%
- Rock Mountain High School (Big Horn #1): 46.15%
- Cooperative High (Carbon #1):39.29%
- Pathfinder High School (Fremont #1):14.29%
- Wyoming Indian High School (Fremont #14): 34.88%
- Washakie High School (Fremont #21): 29.41%
- Arapahoe Charter High School (Fremont #38): 28%
- Triumph High School (Laramie #1): 22.33%
- Midwest School (Natrona #1): 64.71%
- Roosevelt High School (Natrona #1): 42.65%
- Niobrara County High School (Niobrara #1): 50%
- Glendo High School (Platte #1): 60%
- Mackenzie (Sheridan #2): 57.14%
- Black Butte High School (Sweetwater #1): 39.02%
- Expedition Academy (Sweetwater #2): 54.84%
- Horizon Alternative School (Uinta #1):62.07%
Balow said many of Wyoming’s Alternative Schools are falling behind in graduation rates as well as schools with large populations of Native American students.
When looking at reporting categories, Native American students had the lowest graduation rates of any other group. Out of 214 students, only 97 (45.33%) graduated in four years.
Pacific Islanders graduated the highest percentage of high school students in the categories listed by WDE. Out of four Wyoming students identified as Pacific Islanders, 100% of them graduated on time.
Seven schools achieved a 100% four-year graduation rate:
- Burlington High School, Big Horn #1
- Cokeville High School, Lincoln #2
- Meeteetse School, Park #16
- Chugwater High School, Platte #1
- Guernsey-Sunrise High School, Platte #2
- Skyline Academy, Sublette #1
- Ten Sleep K-12, Washakie #2
Thirteen Wyoming school districts posted graduation rates of 90 percent or above:
- Platte #2: 100%
- Washakie #2: 100%
- Park #16: 100%
- Teton #1: 95.93%
- Weston #7: 95.65
- Big Horn #3: 93.75
- Crook #1: 93.33
- Sublette #9: 92.59
- Big Horn #2: 92.45
- Sheridan #1: 91.18
- Lincoln #2: 90.95
- Fremont #24: 90.91
- Sublette #1: 90.54
Since the 2009-10 school year, the WDE has calculated graduation rates using the Federal Four-Year Adjusted Cohort methodology established by the U.S. Department of Education, complying with federal law that requires all states to calculate graduation rates the same way. Students are counted in the four-year (“on-time”) high school graduation rate if they earn a diploma by September 15 following their cohort’s fourth year. Five- and six-year graduation rates are also calculated, and can be viewed with the rest of the graduation rate data.
Full graduation rate statistics are available at edu.wyoming.gov/data/graduation-rates/.