The high school graduation rate in Florida reached an all-time high of 89.7% for the 2023-2024 school year.
It's an increase of 1.7% from the previous year.
And since 2006, the graduation rate has climbed steadily — provided you're not counting the years of the COVID-19 pandemic when students were exempt from statewide standardized assessments.
Gov. Ron DeSantis touted the record rate as a "prime metric" of the state's success, saying that "Florida leads the nation in education because we put education over indoctrination, empower parents, and have made school choice universal."
However, some education leaders point out that graduation rates are only one measure of student success, and argue that it doesn't necessarily show if they're ready for life after high school.
Jessica Wright, a Pasco County school board member and teacher, pointed to the state's math and reading proficiency levels as an example.
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Across grades 3-12, which is when students take the FAST English Language Arts exam, about 50% to 55% are at or above proficiency.
In the math assessment, the proficiency rate is also around 50%. When looking just at high school grade levels, proficiency drops to 33% for Algebra I and 47% for Geometry.
"When you start to look at different proficiency rates for core content, it might seem a little bit more alarming," said Wright. "Yes, we have a high graduation rate, but what does that really mean for the overall efficacy of education?"
But she's quick to point out that standardized testing also shouldn't be the sole metric for measuring that efficacy.
"Standardized testing, ideally should just be a diagnostic to say, 'hey, there's something wrong here that we need to go in and kind of address,'" said Wright.
It's similar to a blood test, she explained.
"There's so many different data points that you have to look at to determine the overall health of education, so just looking at one data point is never going to tell the whole picture."
"We care greatly about graduation rates. We also care greatly that our school district understands exactly what the needs are at each individual school." Ellen Lyons, vice president for advocacy of Hillsborough's PTAEllen Lyons, vice president for advocacy of Hillsborough's PTA
Ellen Lyons, vice president for advocacy of Hillsborough's PTA, added her own ingredient into the mix: absenteeism.
Too many students are still missing too many days of school, Lyons said. Statewide, about 31% of students were chronically absent, or missed 10% of the school year.
When students miss that many days, it's harder to keep up with school work and eventually graduate. School districts across the nation, including in Florida, have seen higher rates of absenteeism since the pandemic, and Lyons said they're still recovering.
"Let us improve. Let us figure out how to make school more inclusive and welcoming for families, make it a place that kids want to go to every single day," said Lyons.
She said it's also important to disaggregate the data. Lyons has looked at numbers at individual Hillsborough schools, and found that some higher performing schools are pulling ahead, while others are lagging behind.
Typically high-performing schools, Plant and Newsome High School, for example, are graduating their students at rates above 96%.
Meanwhile, their absenteeism rates are relatively low compared to the state and district average (31.3%) — 26% for Plant and 17% for Newsome.
Compare that to students at Blake and Chamberlain High School, said Lyons, which have absenteeism rates of 43% and 48%, and are graduating students at lower rates.
At Blake, the graduation rate is 88.5% for white students, 76.1% for Black or African American students, and 73.4% for Hispanic and Latino students.
At Chamberlain, the graduation rates are 77.3% for white students, 71.6% for Black or African American students, and 79.7% for Hispanic and Latino students.
"We care greatly about graduation rates. We also care greatly that our school district understands exactly what the needs are at each individual school," said Lyons.
But that doesn't mean schools haven't made progress, she said.
The increased graduation rate is "remarkable," said Lyons, especially for a year where some graduation requirements were actually raised.
Last year was the first in which concordant SAT scores were raised for students using it towards their diploma.
Students have the option to substitute the English Language Arts exam for the results of their SAT, ACT and CLT exams.
Last year, the passing score for the SAT reading and writing section in order to graduate was raised from 430 to 480.
What we need to figure out, Lyons said, is "what's driving the success of the rates despite changes in rigor to graduate, as well as what's causing negative outcomes."
Districts are making an effort
In Hillsborough, the graduation rate sits slightly below the state average at 88%.
Pasco schools has the highest rate in the Tampa Bay Region with 95%.
In fact, most of the area's districts saw steady improvements in the last few years, except for Hernando and Hardee County.
Hernando's graduation rate decreased slightly from 89% to 88.1%.
Hardee's declined nearly 7% compared to the previous school year, putting them at 73%.
Wright said Pasco's high graduation rate can be partly attributed to a program that's focused on preventing students form dropping out. Their SOS, or "Save Our Students" program, targets students who are frequently absent or have failing grades.
"It's making sure that those students don't slip through the cracks," said Wright.
Another initiative, Wright said, has required Pasco 11th graders to sit for the SAT and ACT exam if they did not pass Florida's standardized tests required for graduation.
"We're just making it to where those scores are already there, they're already available ... should they decide they want to change what they plan to do after high school," said Wright.
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