District graduation rate tops along Wasatch Front
Davis School District continues to have the highest graduation rate among districts along the Wasatch Front with a 94.2 percent graduation rate. Utah’s state graduation rate is 88.2 percent. One other district, Nebo School District, also has a 94.2 percent graduation rate.
The district’s overall graduation rate dropped slightly from 96 percent in 2019. The high schools with the highest graduation rates in the district include Bountiful High at 97.8 percent, Farmington High at 97.6 percent and Woods Cross High at 97.2 percent.
Davis School District is the second largest school district in Utah. As of Oct. 1, 2019, 72,897 students were enrolled in its 91 schools. The largest district, Alpine School District, has an overall graduation rate of 93 percent.
Assistant Superintendent Logan Toone said the difference between the 2019 graduation rate and the 2020 graduation rate is about 80 dropouts across 10 high schools.
“But 80 is a lot; 80 is too many,” Toone said.
District administrators looked at subgroups of students to see where numbers were changing from previous years. The results were not surprising, Toone said.
“It was most pronounced in our at-risk groups, which are our English Language Learners, our African-American students and our Hispanic Latino students,” said Toone. “Those are the ones where typically, that gap has been the largest and that gap got bigger.”
The district will continue to look at the data and focus on ways to continue to narrow that gap. Toone said that’s not to say that the district isn’t still doing well in its work within those subgroups. Davis School District outpaces the state average in every category.
It would be easy to blame COVID-19 and the school shutdown for the rate drop, Toone said. And there is evidence that certain demographics are impacted more by the pandemic. However, administrators feel one of the key factors was the loss of the individual outreach that was prevalent at the end of the school year. The student at risk for dropping out is already difficult to reach when school is in session face-to-face. With schools not in person in the spring, it became even more difficult to personally reach those students.
Davis School District high school administrators for many years have focused on individual students at risk for dropping out. Administrators and counselors meet regularly to talk about each student who is not on track. That effort includes displaying the student’s record, which contains a picture, grades and any disciplinary actions. Those in the room talk about the student as an individual, discuss the relationship they may have with the student, and possible interventions to help the student be successful.
“I think the lesson is how powerful that outreach is and how much, in a time of crisis, … it is critical to find different ways to make that happen,” Toone said.