Not all school districts saw improvement, and Oregon continues to trail the national average. Sweet Home rate increases, while Lebanon sees slight decrease.
By Khushboo Rathore
Oregon Journalism Project
Four-year high school graduation rates in Oregon have inched up, but still remain below the most recent national average.
Data released on Thursday, Jan. 29, by the Oregon Department of Education shows the state reached an 83% graduation rate across the state’s 197 school districts. That mark is Oregon’s highest in a decade.
Nationally, a recent analysis by U.S. News & World Report says the average 2024 graduation rate was 86.4%.
Oregon’s four-year graduation rates increased 1.2 percentage points from last year’s senior class and 0.4 points from the 2019–20 graduating class, which had the highest rate until the latest school year.
Lebanon’s four-year completion rate for the 2024-25 school year was 87.8%, which was a slight decrease from the 91.1% reported the year before by ODE. The 2024-25 four-year completer rate, which includes alternatives like the GED, was 88.5%. LHS’s five-year completion rate for the 2024-25 school year was 91.8%, which was a slight increase from the 89.2% reported the year before by ODE.
The five-year completion rate is the percentage of students who began high school in 2020-21 and earned a Regular or Modified Diploma (including Post Graduate Scholars), extended diploma, adult high school diploma, or a GED by the end of 2024-25 (within five years of beginning high school).
Sweet Home’s four-year completion rate for the 2024-25 school year was 87.9%, an increase of nearly 7% from last year’s 81.0% for the previous four years. Sweet Home’s four-year completer rate for 2024-25 was 87.9%, up from 81% the week before.
Almost every historically marginalized group that ODE tracks saw improvement in graduation rates. Notably, Oregon’s Youth Corrections Education Program had a 22% increase.
“Today’s graduation data show what is possible when we stay focused, aligned and committed to student success,” said Charlene Williams, director of ODE.
The rise in graduation rates, along with this past school year’s lower 2.9% dropout rate, is part of a long series of incremental gains in the state, said Sara Kerr, an Oregon parent and consultant for Results for America, a research nonprofit for public policymakers.
“Based on data, many students are on track academically, but are still missing too much school,” Kerr said. “Graduation gains are real, but they are pretty fragile.”
The largest increase and decrease in four-year graduation rates were in Harney and Gilliam counties, respectively.
Harney County saw the biggest overall improvement, 20 percentage points over last year’s rate. The increase was largely due to the success of Silvies River Charter School, which had 92% of its cohort graduate, a vast improvement from the previous year’s 12.5% graduation rate.
On the other hand, Gilliam County saw its graduation rate drop 28 percentage points, to 72%. But the county also had a larger eligible class this year: 32 students, up from 19 the year before.
Rising graduation rates don’t necessarily reflect how well prepared Oregon high school graduates are for post-secondary education. Unlike most states, Oregon, through its State Board of Education, suspended the requirement that students prove “basic mastery” of reading, writing and math in order to receive a diploma through the class of 2029.
In addition, data indicates that about 40% of high school graduates who enroll in community college have to take remedial courses, Kerr says.
“When you’re handing a kid a diploma, they’re walking across that stage and being told that the world is their oyster. Are they truly prepared to succeed in community college, a four-year institution, and or civic life?”
Williams said efforts to raise graduation rates must start long before high school. “We know that we have more work to do to support our younger learners, especially when it comes to English language arts,” she said. “Gaps in literacy can show up later, sometimes in attendance, course completion, and sometimes whether or not students ultimately graduate.”
— The New Era staff contributed to this story