Sarasota County Graduation Rate Dips

Three Sarasota high schools improved their graduation rates this year, while the county’s overall rate slightly dipped. 

The Florida Department of Education released the graduation and dropout rate report Monday for , which details how the county decreased slightly from a 84.3 percent rate in 2010 to a 83.5 percent rate in 2011. The rate is still above the state average of 80.1 percent.

“While we certainly would like to see our district’s graduation rate improve every year, we are pleased that it remains well above the state average and that the dropout rate has improved from last year,” said Superintendent Lori White in a news release. 

Last year Florida adopted a method of calculating graduation rates developed by the National Governors Association to ensure consistency from state to state. The association’s method does not include students who earn a General Educational Development degree (GED) based on a high school equivalency test, so graduation rates calculated using the state’s previous method cannot be compared with rates calculated using the association’s method, the school system stated in a release.

, charter school and gifted and talented school Pine View High School all slightly increased their graduation rates. ’s rate decreased just three tenths of a percentage point from 83 percent to 82.7 percent.

The district dropout rate for the 2010-11 school year was 1.9 percent — a decrease over the 2009-10 rate of 2 percent, but consistent with the state rate, which was also 1.9 percent. 

The graduation rates and the dropout rate are not directly comparable, the school system said. The graduation rate is calculated by tracking the number of students who start in a school as ninth graders to the number in the same class who graduate four years later.

The dropout rate indicates the number of students who drop out of school in a single year. Students are not counted as dropouts if it can be documented that they have transferred to another school.

NGA graduation rates for Sarasota County high schools

School

NGA graduation rate 2008-2009

(percentage)*

NGA graduation rate 2009-10

(percentage)*

NGA graduation rate 2010-2011

(percentage)*

Booker High

70.8

77.8

74.4

North Port High

82.5

88.1

83

Pine View School

100

97.8

100

Riverview High

84.8

83

82.7

Sarasota High

80.9

81.5

83

Sarasota Military Academy (charter)

90.4

92.2

94.3

Venice High

85

89.1

86.5

Sarasota County School District

80.5

84.3

83.5

State

76.3

79

80.1

*Rates reported are based on the National Governors Association formula now used by the Florida Department of Education. Rates reported by the state in previous years used a different formula, but for comparison purposes the NGA rate is used here for three consecutive school years. 

Annual Dropout Rate (percentage)

Year

Sarasota County

State

2003-04

2.9

2.9

2004-05

2.9

3

2005-06

2.5

3.5

2006-07

2.7

3.3

2007-08

2.1

2.6

2008-09

1.8

2.3

2009-10

2

2

2010-11

1.9

1.9