Graduation rates continue to rise in Duval County Public Schools

  • By Max Marbut
  • | 12:00 p.m. December 27, 2016
  • | 5 Free Articles Remaining!
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Companies that rented caps and gowns to students who graduated from Duval County public high schools this year should report very good business in 2016.

That’s because for the fourth consecutive year, Duval County Public Schools earned its highest graduation rate in history.

More than 78.8 percent of high school seniors received a diploma, an increase of 2.2 percentage points over 2015 and more than 11 percentage points’ improvement since the school year that ended in 2012.

The numbers, released Dec. 16 by the Florida Department of Education, indicate Duval County is the state’s leader in graduation rate improvement among the seven largest school districts — better than Broward, Dade, Hillsborough, Orange, Palm Beach and Pinellas counties.

The statewide graduation rate compared to 2015 increased by 2.8 percentage points to 80.7 percent and up from 74.5 percent in 2012.

In addition, the African-American graduation rate in Duval County also continued to go up, rising to 75.2 percent — an increase of more than 4.1 percentage points compared to 2015 and 12.9 percentage points higher compared to 2012.

Duval County’s African-American graduation rate this year also is the highest among the seven largest school districts, as it was in 2015.

The graduation rate for Hispanic students this year was 79 percent, a 15.2 percentage point increase since 2012.

Three traditional high schools achieved a graduation rate increase of more than 8 percentage points: Terry Parker at 8.4 points, Andrew Jackson at 11.6 points and Ed White at 12.6 points.

All 21 traditional high schools increased their graduation rate or maintained a rate higher than 95 percent.

Twelve (57 percent) of those schools exceeded the 90 percent graduation rate, up from 29 percent in 2015.

Among magnet schools, Darnell-Cookman School of the Medical Arts achieved a graduation rate of 100 percent for the third consecutive year and Stanton College Preparatory School became the second high school in the district to record a 100 percent graduation rate.

“What is particularly a point of pride is that nearly all our schools continue to show improvement and that our work with African-American students is leading the state,” said Duval County Public Schools Superintendent Nikolai Vitti in a news release.

Trey Csar, president of the Jacksonville Public Education Fund, in a news release said the graduation rate improvement is a sign of “significant progress” in Duval County public schools.

“Particularly encouraging are the strong gains made by African-American and Hispanic students, whose graduation rates are rising faster than the district average,” he said.

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Duval County Public Schools graduation rates rise

For the fourth consecutive year, more students are graduating from Duval County Public Schools. This year’s rate of 78.8 percent is an increase of 2.2 percentage points over last year.

School

2011-12

2012-13

2013-14

2014-15

2015-16

Difference*

11-12 to 15-16

Overall

67.7%

72.1%

74.0%

76.6%

78.8%

2.2%

11.1%

Lee

58.7%

71.5%

78.1%

80.9%

86.0%

5.1%

27.2%

Jackson

66.0%

67.7%

74.5%

70.3%

81.8%

11.6%

15.9%

Baldwin

80.3%

75.8%

81.8%

88.7%

91.4%

2.7%

11.1%

Paxon

100.0%

100.0%

99.7%

99.7%

99.4%

-0.4%

-0.6%

Parker

72.0%

80.5%

76.7%

78.5%

86.9%

8.4%

14.9%

Englewood

66.7%

70.3%

68.5%

77.5%

83.0%

5.5%

16.4%

Ribault

73.1%

70.5%

75.9%

74.9%

78.0%

3.1%

4.9%

Anderson

95.5%

97.4%

98.3%

97.9%

99.3%

1.4%

3.8%

Cookman

100.0%

98.7%

100.0%

100.0%

100.0%

0.0%

0.0%

Stanton

98.8%

99.4%

99.5%

99.7%

100.0%

0.3%

1.2%

Raines

67.7%

72.1%

72.1%

87.7%

92.0%

4.3%

24.3%

Fletcher

84.1%

88.5%

90.6%

89.9%

93.7%

3.9%

9.6%

Wolfson

63.6%

73.1%

75.9%

82.6%

89.1%

6.5%

25.5%

Sandalwood

73.2%

75.2%

83.5%

89.6%

90.4%

0.9%

17.2%

Westside

66.6%

69.5%

81.0%

86.8%

88.7%

1.9%

22.2%

White

56.9%

67.4%

72.6%

67.2%

79.8%

12.6%

22.9%

Mandarin

81.2%

85.6%

90.3%

91.9%

95.1%

3.2%

13.9%

First Coast

69.5%

78.4%

73.1%

84.9%

91.2%

6.3%

21.7%

Atlantic Coast

83.8%

87.0%

87.1%

87.4%

89.1%

1.7%

5.3%

Peterson

80.5%

90.7%

84.6%

92.2%

92.9%

0.7%

12.4%

Randolph

76.4%

72.4%

79.2%

89.4%

90.9%

1.6%

14.5%

Source: Duval County Public Schools

 

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