Wyoming’s Interim Education Director is expressing concerns about the state’s declining graduation rate. Jim Rose notes that Wyoming’s high school graduation rate has fallen below 80 percent for the second straight year.
The most recent numbers show that 78-point-nine percent of public high school students graduated in the 2011-2012 school year. Rose says this is an indicator that the state has some work to do to get the graduation numbers higher.
“When one in five high school students is not graduating we look at that as a serious indicator of things that we still need to improve. School improvement and increasing the graduation rate won’t occur in just the 3 or 4 grades of high school. This is an issue we have to address across the spectrum.”
Rose says he is hoping the state’s new accountability measures will help.
“It’s an issue that I think the accountability and education act is attempting to address and as we improve schools we will improve students and their performance and ultimately this rate is going to go up.”
He does note that of the state’s 48 school districts, 34 maintained a graduation rate of 80 percent or higher.