Ramona Schools Have a Higher Graduation Rate than State, County Averages

The graduation rate is higher than both the statewide and countywide averages, according to state data released Thursday that for the first time tracked individual students over four years.

“For far too long, the discussion about graduation and dropout rates has revolved around how the results were obtained,” State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said in a statement. “Now, we can focus on the much more important issue of how to raise the number of graduates and lower the number of dropouts.”

For the 2009-10 school year, for which the new system was used, 86.6 percent of RUSD students graduated, compared to 73.8 percent across the county, and 74.4 percent across the state.

Statewide, about three out of four students graduate from high school and a little more than 18 percent drop out, according to the new tracking system, the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement System. The previous rate calculation method did not account for students who transferred in and out of schools, making it difficult to compare these newest figures with past data.

State and county figures, unlike individual high schools, include data from county-run dropout recovery programs, which tends to make individual schools’ graduation rates higher.

Out of the 559 students in the RUSD class of 2010, 443 attended , which had a 89.4 percent graduation rate. had a 100 percent graduation rate, and the program graduated 20 of its 31 students, a 64.5 percent rate.

At all levels—district, county and state—there is a disparity between the graduation and dropout rates of minority students and white students, termed the achievement gap. In Ramona, African-American students had a 66.7 percent graduation rate and Hispanic or Latino students a 79 percent rate, while nine out of 10 white students graduated, at 90.3 percent.

In 2008-9, under the previous calculation system, RUSD’s graduation rate was 93.8 percent; the county, 79.4 percent; the state, 78.6 percent.

Associate Local Editor Tom Roebuck contributed to this report.