Let’s hear it for the Class of 2023! Indiana’s students turned the tide of declining high school graduation rates, stuck it out even after COVID interrupted their in-person high school experience, and gave the state some much-needed good news on education.
Statewide, 88.98% of Hoosier seniors graduated from high school last year, according to recently released data from the Indiana Department of Education. This is very close to the highest rate the Department of Education has ever reported — 90.1% in 2012.
Students did this last year even as the number of permitted graduation waivers declined and will continue to decline further in the years ahead under state education policy.
We also owe teachers and school staff a debt of gratitude for all they do, day in and day out, to get the number of high school graduates closer to 100%. Fact is, if you look hard at the data across the state, you will find there are a select few schools that achieved that feat last year. Granted, they are comparatively small schools, where students undoubtedly have more one-on-one attention.
According to data from the Indiana Department of Education, the honor roll of public high schools with 100% graduation rates includes Attica (47 students), Barr-Reeve in Montgomery (47 students), Bluffton (106 students), Morgan Township in Valparaiso (55 students), Tecumseh in Lynnville (73 students), West Washington in Campbellsburg, (62 students), and White River Valley in Switz City (45 students).
So it is possible. Perhaps there are lessons to be drawn from how these schools graduated every senior.
Locally, a couple of smaller schools came tantalizingly close to 100%. Edinburgh missed by one student, graduating 54 out of a cohort of 55 students. Hauser graduated 82 of 86 seniors, good for 95.35%.
The numbers also improved at Columbus East and Columbus North, though there is still work to be done to raise the graduation rate closer to the state average. East increased markedly from a 2022 graduation rate of 78.16% to 83.49%. North’s gain was less dramatic, with 83.36% of its seniors graduating last year.
Some of the best news in the data statewide and locally is that achievement gaps are narrowing. Students on free and reduced-price lunches are graduating at rates closer to those from families of greater financial means, and the graduation rate for Black and Hispanic students also improved, the data show.
We’re doing better statewide, and our local numbers are on the right track, which is all to the good. But local educators and products of Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. can recall a time not long ago when BCSC students outperformed the statewide average graduation rate.
That’s a worthy goal. Students simply have better prospects and more options when they stay in school and graduate. We should all want that for them, and it’s important that students understand the value of their high school diploma. So along with celebrating this most welcome good news, let’s also focus on improving student performance for the Class of 2024 and beyond.
What can we do to get local students closer to that 100% graduation rate?
