The Alamance-Burlington school system’s four-year graduation rate reached 87.3 percent for the 2020-21 school year, topping the statewide graduation rate for the first time in recent memory, based on the latest annual graduation report released last week by the state Department of Public Instruction (DPI).
The ABSS four-year graduation rate is the highest since DPI began tracking graduation rates in 2006, ABSS superintendent Dr. Bruce Benson said in announcing the school system’s graduation results last Thursday.
The system-wide four-year graduation rate for ABSS increased by 2.8 percentage points, from 84.5 percent in 2019-20, to 87.3 percent in 2020-21, DPI’s latest annual graduation report reveals. The system-wide four-year graduation rate in 2020-21 represents ABSS students who entered the ninth grade in 2017-18 and graduated within the traditional four-year time frame.
With more than 95 percent of seniors graduating on-time in 2020-21, the graduation rate for the ABSS Early College housed on Alamance Community College’s campus continued to outpace rates for both ABSS and the state for a sixth consecutive year, according to DPI. The Early College’s four-year graduation rate exceeded the system-wide rate (87.3 percent) by 7.7 percentage points and the statewide rate (86.9 percent) by 8.1 percentage points, according to DPI’s report.
Four-year graduation rate at three ABSS high schools exceeds statewide rate
Four-year graduation rates increased at five of the six traditional ABSS high schools (Cummings, Graham, Eastern, Southern, and Williams), while the rate declined at Western High School in 2020-21, based on the state’s latest annual report (see accompanying chart for a breakdown of the four-year graduation rates by school).
The four-year graduation rates at two ABSS high schools (Eastern and Southern) exceeded both the system-wide and statewide graduation rates; Western High School’s graduation rate was slightly above the statewide rate but tied with the system-wide rate in 2020-21, based on DPI’s latest report.
At 92.9 percent, the four-year graduation rate at Eastern High School was 5.6 percentage points higher than the rate for ABSS as a whole and 4.4 percentage points higher than the statewide graduation rate for the 2020-21 school year. Eastern High School’s graduation rate increased by 4.9 percentage points, from 88.0 percent in 2019-20 to 92.9 percent in 2020-21, DPI’s report shows.
Southern High School’s graduation rate of 92 percent, an increase of 3.5 percentage points from 88.5 percent in 2019-20, was 4.7 percentage points higher than the system-wide rate and 5.1 percentage points higher than the statewide graduation rate in 2020-21.
Western High School’s four-year graduation rate exceeded the statewide rate by four-tenths of 1 percentage point but tied with the system-wide rate of 87.3 percent in 2020-21. The on-time graduation rate at Western High School declined by 2.3 percentage points, from 89.6 percent in 2019-20 to 87.3 percent in 2020-21, based on DPI’s latest annual graduation report.
By comparison, four-year graduation rates at three ABSS high schools (Cummings, Graham, and Williams) trailed both the system-wide and statewide graduation rates for the 2020-21 school year.
Graham High School’s graduation rate increased by 6.1 percentage points, from 71.4 percent in 2019-20 to 77.5 percent in 2020-21, but trailed the system-wide rate by 9.8 percentage points and the statewide rate by 9.4 percentage points, according to the state’s latest annual report.
The four-year graduation at Cummings High School increased by 5.3 percentage points, from 74.9 percent in 2019-20 to 80.2 percent in 2020-21, but trailed the system-wide and statewide rates by 7.1 percentage points and 6.7 percentage points, respectively.
At 86.1 percent, the four-year graduation rate at Williams High School increased by six-tenths of 1 percentage point, from 85.5 percent in 2019-20 to 86.1 percent in 2020-21. But the rate for Williams High School trailed the system-wide rate by 1.2 percentage points and the statewide rate by eight-tenths of 1 percentage point in 2020-21, according to the state’s latest report.
Among the 16 public school systems that make up the state’s Piedmont-Triad region, ABSS moved up three spots, from 14th in the region in 2019-20 to 11th in the region in 2020-21, based on four-year graduation rates (see accompanying chart).
On-time graduation rate for county’s three charter schools continue to top those for ABSS, state
Meanwhile, the county’s three charter schools all posted four-year graduation rates that were higher than those for ABSS and the state in 2020-21, according to DPI’s latest report (see accompanying chart).
However, four-year graduation rates declined at two of the county’s three public charter schools (Clover Garden School and The Hawbridge School), while the rate at River Mill Academy remained unchanged from the previous school year, at more than 95 percent in 2020-21, according to DPI’s latest report, which notes that exact percentages aren’t given for schools with graduation rates that exceed 95 percent.
The four-year graduation rate for River Mill Academy in 2020-21 outpaced the system-wide rate of 87.3 percent for ABSS by 7.7 percentage points and the statewide rate of 86.9 percent by 8.1 percentage points, based on DPI’s latest annual report.
The four-year graduation rate for The Hawbridge School in Saxapahaw increased by 4.2 percentage points from 89.3 percent in 2019-20 to 93.5 percent in 2020-21. The Hawbridge School’s graduation rate was 6.2 percentage points higher than the rate for ABSS and 6.6 percentage points higher than the statewide on-time graduation rate in 2020-21, DPI’s latest annual report reveals.
The on-time graduation rate for Clover Garden School in Burlington declined by 2.7 percentage points, from a rate of more than 95 percent in 2019-20 to 92.3 percent in 2020-21.
Clover Garden School’s graduation rate exceeded that for ABSS by 5 percentage points and the statewide rate by 5.4 percentage points in 2020-21, according to DPI.
DPI’s report includes no results for the county’s fourth charter school Alamance Community School, which opened in the fall of 2020 and serves students in kindergarten through fourth grade.
In announcing the 2020-21 graduation rates for ABSS last week, Benson pointed to several strategies – such as adding graduation coaches at each high school to identify and provide additional support for at-risk students – that ABSS used to keep seniors on track to graduate on time, despite the suspension of in-person instruction for much of the 2020-21 school year due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
