C.O. graduation rates up – but much room to improve
Bend-La Pine Schools have higher graduation rates than the state average, but the good news ends there. Oregon ranks dead last in a recent nationwide survey.
Only 72 percent of Oregon’s students graduated in the 2013/2014 school year, figures released Thursday showed.
“The Bend-La Pine School District still has work to do,” said Shay Mikalson, assistant superintendent for secondary programs with the district.
Jefferson County, Redmond and Crook County school districts ranked even lower than the state average.
In Crook County, only 30 percent of students graduated in 2013/2014. Crook County Superintendent Duane Yecha said the low graduation rates are “very concerning” but that the actual rates were a little higher, since the district made a mistake in submitting data.
Yecha added that the biggest problem for the district is the online charter school, which currently has around 450 students but a graduation rate of only 16 percent.
The Bend-La Pine, Sisters and Culver districts topped the state average.
“Our district is on a steady track record of improvement,” Mikalson said.
Oregon’s graduation rates have improved since last year, but much of that is due to changes in the state’s definition of a high school graduate. Now it includes special education students who earn modified diplomas and students who defer their diplomas so they can go to community college for a year for free.
School officials said the new definition was long overdue and is leveling the playing field.
“The change in how we calculate graduation rates across the state is consistent with most states across the nation,” Mikalson said.
The definition was changed this school year, but graduation rates in the Bend-La Pine Schools have been improving for years.
“For us, whichever way that definition is happening, we’re seeing that progress increasing,” Mikalson said. “And more importantly we’re seeing our students prepared for those next steps at a much higher rate across the district.”
