Collier, Lee graduation rates higher than state’s vastly improved rate

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Chief Instructional Officer Martha Hayes listens to discussion after she presented the current sex education curriculum to the School Board at the Martin Luther King Jr. Administration Center in North Naples on July 30, 2009. Greg Kahn/Staff

Superintendent James Browder smiles while being interviewed by media representatives in his office in early 2008.

NAPLES — Florida’s high school graduation rate jumped by 3 percentage points to a record 76.3 percent this year, while Lee and Collier districts bested the state’s results, education officials said Friday.

“Florida’s education system continues to be a rising star in our nation, and our teachers and school leaders should be commended,” Gov. Charlie Crist said in a statement. “Our graduation rate is one of many recent measurements showing the progress we are making.”

State officials credited Florida’s improvement largely to minority students. The rate for blacks increased 4.1 percentage points to 64.9 percent. The rate for Hispanics grew by 4.5 percentage points to 72.1 percent. Those increases compare to a 2.3 percentage point gain for non-Hispanic whites to 83.1 percent.

Florida Education Commissioner Eric J. Smith called the results “encouraging” while noting that “there is still much more work to be done.”

Collier’s graduation rate stands at 77.2 percent, higher than the state average.

Chief Instructional Officer Martha Hayes said she was happy Collier’s rate continued to rise.

“We have seen the graduation rate increase 11 percent in eight years. That’s considerable,” she said. “The state’s happy and we’re happy.”

Collier’s graduation rate has increased about 5 percent since the 2004-05 school year, when 72.8 percent of high school students graduated from one of the district’s public high schools.

Hayes said she also was pleased the district’s dropout rate fell 0.3 percentage points to 2.2 percent. While Hayes acknowledged that 0.3 percentage points doesn’t translate to a big number, it could translate to 10 or 20 kids.

“If we can keep 10 or 20 more of our students from dropping out, I am happy,” she said.

Under a new graduation rate calculation method, the Lee County School District’s rate also increased, though not as rapidly as the state’s. However, with 77.6 percent of seniors graduating, the district remains ahead of the state.

“I am thrilled and delighted with the continued progress we’re making academically,” Lee schools Superintendent James Browder said in a statement.

Additionally, the Lee district’s dropout rate improved, dropping a half percentage point to 1.3 percent, compared with the state’s rate of 2.3 percent. Seven years ago, the district’s dropout rate was 7 percent.

“I continue to be encouraged by the declining dropout rate, and I believe we are providing a wide range of educational opportunities to keep children in school,” Browder said in the prepared release. “We will continue to look for as many educational experiences as we can provide to ensure students stay in school and stay on track.”

Florida’s graduation rate climbed despite removal of GED recipients from the calculation. In other words, students who received a GED weren’t counted as graduates.

The push is part of a national effort to implement uniform graduation rate calculation criteria, and in Florida, that will mean standard diplomas will eventually be the only thing counted. Special diplomas also will be removed from the equation after the 2010-11 school year.

Browder cited this as a point of concern in his prepared remarks.

“I think we all agree that a uniform way of determining graduation rates is long overdue,” Browder said in the release. “I am concerned, however, that removing GED, special diplomas and certificates of completion students from the calculation won’t provide the whole graduation rate picture.”

Much of the progress in Florida’s graduation rates was attributed to increased graduation among Hispanic and African-American students.

But that wasn’t the case in Collier, which was troubling to Hayes.

“Our Hispanic graduation rate is not improving,” she said. “I think we have some language issues. It is hard to be a high school student and translate your text books.”

About 8 percent of the district’s high school students are English Language Learners, according to district figures.

At 3.1 percent, Hispanics also have the highest dropout rate of any racial/ethnic group in Collier County, according to state figures. The 3.1 percent figure is almost twice the dropout rate for white and black students, who average a 1.6 percent dropout rate.