CHARLESTON, W.Va. — State School Superintendent Dr. Michael Martirano said he’s pleased more West Virginia students are graduating high school, according to data released Wednesday by the state Department of Education.
“I’m absolutely thrilled,” Martirano said. “I want every citizen in West Virginia to understand what the importance of the graduation rate means to our state. The more young people to graduate, the better off our state is going to be.”
The data showed rates increased by two percent over the past school year. The numbers for a four-year graduation rate jumped from 84.5 percent in 2013-2014 to 86.5 percent in 2014-2015. In addition, graduation rates of students in the five-year cohort rose from 83.6 percent in 2013-14 to 84.7 percent in 2014-15.
Throughout the last five years, the rate has increased by 20 percent points from 76.4 percent in 2009-2010.
Martirano said on Thursday’s MetroNews “Talkline” part of the reason why the numbers are higher is because they’re making it difficult for students to drop out.
“If a child wants to drop out before all they had to do was sign a piece of paper and they could drop out. Now, it’s a very serious item. If they want to drop out or they’re considering that, they have to have conferences with principles and teachers,” he said.
The superintendents in many districts are not allowing drop outs to occur, Martirano said. Instead, they’re encouraging students to find alternative career pathways.
Martirano said they’re also holding several attendance campaigns to ensure students stay in school and they’re using data to to make certain children are mastering reading and math skills.
“We’ve set a goal at 90 percent,” he said. “I think we can achieve it in the next three years, but I want to set that as the floor, not the ceiling.”
Many school districts in West Virginia, including 22 counties, are above 90 percent already, Martirano said.
During the 2014-2015 school year, Mineral County ranked the highest with a rate of 97 percent. Hardy County had 96 percent of students graduate, followed by Ohio County at 95.5 percent and Jackson County at 95 percent.
As the graduation rate increases, Martirano said he really wants the diploma to matter.
“That starts with our standards, the quality of the educational process and ensuring that young people have skills when they graduate from high school,” he said. “We’re hitting it as a two-pronged approach: one, we want more children to graduated, but at the same time it has to have meaning and we’re strengthening that process also.”