R.I. high school graduation rates on upward path

THE GRADUATION RATE for Rhode Island high school students increased 8 percentage points from 2011 to 2016, according to Department of Education statistics. / COURTESY R.I. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
THE GRADUATION RATE for Rhode Island high school students increased 8 percentage points from 2011 to 2016, according to Department of Education statistics. / COURTESY R.I. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

PROVIDENCE – According to the state’s four-year high school graduation rate report, released Monday by the R.I. Department of Education, 2016 was the highest year on record for high schoolers graduating within four years of entering secondary schools.

The report found 85.3 percent of the class of 2016 graduated high school within four years – an increase of 2 percentage points compared with the class of 2015 and an 8 percentage point increase from the class of 2011.
Of those who did not graduate within four years, there was an 8.3 percent drop-out rate, while 1.6 percent of students received their GED and 4.8 percent of students were retained in school.

Thirty-one high schools across the state graduated 90 percent or more of their students in four years and 14 high schools graduated 95 percent or more of their student body in four years.

Graduation rate increases of more than 10 percentage points compared to 2015 data were witnessed at Blackstone Academy Charter School in Pawtucket (17.5 percentage points), The Greene School in West Greenwich (17.5 percentage points) and Providence’s Dr. Jorge Alvarez High School (10.1 percentage points).

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Over the past five years, between the class of 2011 and the class of 2016, 20 percentage point increases in four-year graduation rates were seen at Cranston’s NEL/CPS Construction Career Academy (28 percentage points), William E. Tolman Senior High School in Pawtucket (23 percentage points), Providence Career and Technical Academy (22 percentage points) and Cranston High School East (22 percentage points).

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