District mark for 2015-16 school year is more than four percentage points higher than the state figure
The 2015-16 graduation rate for the Sarasota County School District’s high schools rose to 85.4 percent, more than six percentage points higher than its 2014-15 graduation rate, the district has announced.
The rates for all Florida school districts were released Dec. 16 by the Florida Department of Education.
The Sarasota district’s graduation rate was more than four percentage points higher than the state average of 81 percent, a news release points out. “Every traditional public high school in the district improved its graduation rate from the previous year,” the release says. “The most dramatic increase was for Venice High School,” which saw its rate rise by 13 percentage points over its 2014-15 level, the release adds.
For the 2015-16 school year, the State of Florida calculated and reported only the Federal Uniform Graduation rate, which is derived from tracking the number of students who start in a school as ninth-graders to the number in the same class who graduate four years later, the release explains. “The U.S. Department of Education adopted this calculation method in an effort to develop uniform, accurate and comparable graduation rates across all states,” the release says.
The formula includes standard diplomas but excludes general equivalency diplomas (GEDs), both regular and adult, and special diplomas, the release notes.