Summit School District continues to be one of the more successful districts in the state, maintaining a graduation rate significantly above state average while also keeping a very low dropout rate. That’s according to the Colorado Department of Education, which released graduation and dropout statistics for 2018 this week.
The state’s overall graduation rate continues to rise and the dropout rates fall as more students are staying in school and graduating in four years, completing with a High School Equivalency Diploma or a non-diploma certificate.
Colorado’s four-year graduation rates have been steadily increasing from 77.3 percent in 2015, 78 percent in 2016, 79 percent in 2017 and 80.7 percent in 2018. Across Colorado, the 2018 graduating class had a rate of 1.7 percentage points higher than the 2017 graduating class, a difference of 2,540 more graduates from the year before. The 2018 graduating class also had a completion rate of 82.5 percent, which includes an additional 1,159 students who completed with a HSED or non-diploma certificate.
Female students continue to have higher graduation rates statewide. The four-year graduation rate for females was 84.6 percent and the male graduation rate was 77.1 percent.
Summit School District was above the state average with a graduation rate of 95.02 percent in 2018. The graduation rate in 2018 remained the same as 2017, while 2017’s graduation rate was 5 percent higher than 2016. The high graduation rate placed Summit School District 14.3 percent higher than the state’s graduation rate, ranking Summit near the top 25 percent of all Colorado school districts in 2018.
Summit also had a completion rate of 96.3 percent, with includes students who completed with a HSED or non-diploma certificate. The completion rate increased 0.4 percent from 2017, which was 95.9 percent.
Recommended Stories For You
In all Colorado schools, the dropout rate has been decreasing over the past several years. In the 2017-18 school year, Colorado’s dropout rate was at an all time low of 2.2 percent. The rate was a tenth of a percent lower from the previous anticipated year of graduation.
Last year, Summit School District was well below the state average with a mere 0.4 percent dropout rate. That rate remained the same as 2017, which was a tenth of a percentage point lower than 2016.
“We are proud of all the hard work and dedication by students, families, teachers and staff,” Summit School District superintendent Kerry Buhler said in a press release. “Summit School District remains committed to supporting student achievement, growth and success.”
Buhler added that Summit has even more ambitious goals, striving to be one of the top school districts in the state for academic performance.
The goal is part of “Vision2020 v. 2.0,” a new five-year roadmap that aims to better support the social-emotional and physical well-being of students, deliver student-centered instruction in every classroom, and achieve top-tier academic performance ranking in the state.
“With Vision2020 v. 2.0, Summit School District strives to ‘Champion Student Success’ as we work toward ranking in the top 5 percent of school districts in Colorado for academic performance,” Buhler said.