California graduation rates climbing

Graduation rates among California’s public school students are climbing and dropout rates falling, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson announced Wednesday.

The period announced depicted graduation rates of 2011, indicating that more than more than three quarters, or 76.3 percent, of students who started high school in 2007 graduated with their class in 2011 — up 1.5 percentage points from the 2010 graduation rate.

In Porterville and Lindsay, high school drop out rates range from 0.7 to 4.3 within the Porterville Unified, Burton School District and Lindsay Unified school districts.

At Burton School District’s Summit Charter Collegiate Academy, the drop out rate is 0.7 percent — only one student, a junior dropped out in 2011.

Lindsay High School had 46 dropouts, 29 of them seniors, within its 1,026 student enrollment.

Porterville Unified School district’s five high schools ranged from a 0.9 percent drop out rate at Harmony Magnet Academy — four juniors from the school’s 442 enrollment dropped out, to Granite Hill’s High School’s 3.8 percent drop out rate — 44 students of the school’s 1147 students dropped, 33 of them seniors.

Porterville High, with an enrollment of 1,787, had 55 students drop, 34 of them seniors, to end 2011 with a 3.1 drop out rate.

Of Monache High’s 1,877 students, 42 dropped in 2011, 30 of them seniors, for a 2.2 drop out rate.

Strathmore High, with its 345 student population, ended with a 3.5 percent drop out rate — 12 students dropping, 10 of them seniors.

The district’s newest high school, Harmony Magnet Academy, who had its first graduating class in 2011, had four juniors of a 442 student population dropping out, taking the school to a 0.9 percent drop out rate.

“Every graduate represents a success story in one of the most effective job and anti-poverty programs ever conceived, our public schools,” Torlakson said. “These numbers are a testament to the hard work of teachers and administrators, of parents and, most of all, of the students themselves. While they are a great illustration of all that is going right in California schools, they should also remind us that schools need our support to continue to improve so that every student graduates prepared for college, a career, and to contribute to our state’s future.”

Beyond the 76.3 percent graduation rate and the 14.4 percent dropout rate, the remaining 9.3 percent are students who are neither graduates nor dropouts. Some are still enrolled in school (8.6 percent). Others are non-diploma special education students (0.4 percent), and some elected to pass a high school equivalency exam.

To view and download state, county, district, and school graduation and dropout rates, visit the state’s DataQuest site — http://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/

Contact Esther Avila at 784-5000, Ext. 1045. Follow her on Twitter @Avila_recorder.