Orange County high schools graduation rates best ever in 2014-15

Apopka High School improves to 90.7%

The Florida Department of Education released the 2014-15 graduation rates for the state, districts and high schools. The graduation rate for Orange County Public Schools’ (OCPS) 19 traditional high schools increased 1.5 percentage points (in comparison to the 2013-14 school year), to 89.6 percent. OCPS increased its overall graduation rate by 3.0 percentage points, from 74.6 percent to 77.6 percent. Both of these graduation rates are the highest Federal graduation rates ever recorded for Orange County. The state graduation rate was 77.8 percent.

Apopka High School also followed the county trend by improving its rate 4.9 percent to 90.7 percent. Wekiva High’s graduation rate for 2014-15 was 83.4 percent (down 1.2 percent).

The overall improvement pleased Christine Moore, the Orange County School Board Member for District 7 (including all of Apopka), but she hopes for even better.

“I’m pleased at the forward progress and looking forward to the day when 100% of students graduate on time.”

Moore also pointed out that the vast majority of students not graduating on time would eventually graduate.”

“Only about 1% of our students drop out,” she said.

At the individual high school level, 13 OCPS high schools increased their graduation rates in 2014-15 led by Oak Ridge High School. Oak Ridge increased its graduation rate by 12.7 percentage points from 74.2 percent to 86.9 percent. Notably, over the last five years, four OCPS high schools have increased their graduation rate by more than 10 percentage points.

“We are excited at the work of our teachers and students,” said Dr. Jesus Jara, Deputy Superintendent for OCPS. “A three-percentage point increase is always celebrated.”

Dr. Jara attributes part of that success to investments made to OCPS, including adding 17 additional Guidance Counselors across the entire district.

“These teachers have put systems in place to keep the students on track. And the counselors take the extra step of making sure students have a plan for after graduation.”