FCHS graduation rate climbs after state review

After the state released graduation rates for 2024 in early January, officials with the Franklin County Schools suspected that the 73 percent graduation rate announced for the district was inaccurate.

Superintendent Steve Lanier said that after conversations with school administration and testing personnel, the Florida Department of Education was contacted to request a correction.

School officials identified discrepancies in the data, conducted a thorough evaluation, and confirmed the actual graduation rate was higher than originally reported, he said. Discussions with the DOE revealed that errors in the district’s Accountability Report, submitted in December, contributed to the miscalculation.

The state tracks graduation rates by starting with the cohort of students who attend a high school as freshman, and then tracking whether or not they graduate four years later. Because students transfer in or out of the system, or complete their graduation requirements through a variety of other avenues, such as Education Corps in Franklin County, more students are to be included in the calculation than just the ones who are presented their diploma at the annual commencement ceremonies on the Eastpoint campus.

The DOE has since updated Franklin County’s official 2023-24 graduation rate, and this has resulted in a 12 percentage point climb to 85%, which is in fact the highest such rate in the school’s 16-year history, following the consolidation of the Carrabelle, Apalachicola and Eastpoint public schools in 2008.

“I am proud of this accomplishment and the hard work of our students and teachers, which made this the highest graduation rate in our school’s history,” said Lanier. “My staff did a great job in identifying reporting discrepancies and got our graduation rate rightfully changed.

“We are trending in the right direction at the Franklin County School, with this being the second time in history – the first being two years ago – that we have graduated 83% of our students,” he said.

Franklin County now joins Gulf, Leon, and Holmes school districts, which also reported an 85% graduation rate this year, Lanier said. 

“Additionally, 14 school districts in Florida reported a graduation rate below 85%,” he said. 

He said that when all of the school’s graduation rates are considered since consolidation in 2008, the average is 71 percent, brought down by comparative low graduation rates between 2010 and 2014. (See related chart)

Statewide, Florida’s high school graduation rate rose to 89.7 percent during the 2023-24 school year, an increase of 1.7 percentage points over last year, exceeding the pre-pandemic rate of 86.9% for the 2018-19 school year. 

The 2023–24 high school graduation rate represents the highest rate in Florida history, with the exception of the pandemic school years 2019–20 and 2020–21, in which graduating classes were exempt from statewide, standardized assessment requirements stipulated in state law.

African American students’ graduation rate statewide rose 2.1 percentage points over last year, and 3.3 percentage points since 2021-22.

Hispanic students’ graduation rate statewide increased by 2.2 percentage points from last year and 3.1 percentage points over 2021-22.

Other items of note statewide were that the graduation rate for students with disabilities rose 1.3 percentage points over last year and 3.3 percentage points from 2021-22. Economically disadvantaged students’ graduation rate rose 2.4 percentage points over last year and 3.1 percentage points from 2021-22, while English Language learners’ graduation rate improved 4.6 percentage points over last year and 7.7 percentage points since 2021-22.