At end of 2023-24 school year, Sarasota County Schools mark highest graduation rate ever, excluding COVID year

District climbs from 19th to 13th in state rankings

Image Sarasota County Schools

The Sarasota County School District achieved a graduation rate of 92.5% for the 2023-24 school year, the highest level in the district’s history, “excluding the 2019-2020 graduation rates, when the FLDOE [Florida Department of Education] waived the [state] assessment requirements for graduation” because of the COVID-19 pandemic, District staff has announced.

“This historic achievement highlights a steady upward trend that has propelled the district from 19th to 13th place in the state rankings,” a district document points out with emphasis.

The graduation rates for the 2023-24 school year rose for all of the district’s traditional public high schools, that document adds, putting all of them higher than 90%.

“Notably,” the document continues, both Pine View School in Osprey and Suncoast Polytechnical High School in Sarasota both achieved a rate of 100%.

The state average for last year was 89.7%, the document says.

Image Sarasota County Schools

Among other key points in the document were as follows:

  • Booker High School achieved a 5% increase in its graduation rates over the previous year and a 7% improvement over five years, attaining a level of 90.6% in 2023-24.
  • Sarasota High School saw a year-over-year increase of 6.7% — from 2022-23 to 2023-24, with the graduation rate for the latter year at 93.2%, “its highest in five years.”
  • North Port High School achieved a 3.3% uptick over the 2022-23 school year rate, reaching a level of 90.8%.
  • Venice High Schools’ rate was 96.9% for 2023-24, which was up 1.4% from the previous year’s mark.

Among yet other details, the report points out, “English Language Learners (ELL) saw the most substantial improvement, with a 15.8 percentage point increase for [2023-24], achieving an 84.5% graduation rate.”

Hispanic students achieved a 90.1% graduation rate, up 6.1 percentage points year-over-year, the document adds.

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