South Florida graduation rates boosted as standardized tests eliminated due to COVID

The thankfully over-with year of 2020 “sucked” for high school graduates, but canceled end-of-year tests for Florida’s public school students may have been a silver lining.

That also may have helped districts’ graduation rates, which were released by the Florida Department of Education late Thursday. According to the state, about 7.1% of the Class of 2020 graduated with this exemption, making it difficult to compare year-over-year performance.

With the exception of a handful of small school districts, the vast majority of Florida school districts improved their graduation rate during quarantine. The state as a whole continues to improve its graduation rate, seeing an increase this year of 3.1 percentage points to 90%. Race and gender subgroups improved across the board.

Florida’s federal graduation rate in 2017-18 ranked #26 in the nation, tied with North Carolina.

South Florida’s graduation rates boosted

As for South Florida, Miami-Dade improved its rate by 4 percentage points to 89.6%. Broward saw a similar jump, from 86.2% to 89.4%. Monroe County’s graduation rate leaped 6 percentage points from 86% to 92%.

According to a Miami-Dade County Public Schools press release, without charter schools, its graduation rate grew to 93.1 percent, up from 89.2 percent the prior year. The district also highlighted graduation rates among Black students, up 6.1 percentage points to 85.6 percent, which was the greatest increase across all large urban districts as well as the state.

The district’s graduation rate for students with disabilities improved by 2.3 percentage points to 84.4 percent, past the state rate of 82.6%. Students who qualify for free and reduced lunch also graduated at 89%, a 4.1-percentage point boost. That surpasses the state’s rate of 86.9%.

This story was originally published January 8, 2021 at 2:23 PM.