Skip to main content
The Oregon Department of Education released its latest graduation rate data Thursday morning for the class of 2024, showing the state’s graduation rate has climbed to 81.8% overall.
That’s the second-highest rate the state has reported, coming in just after the class of 2020, and ODE proclaims it as a victory. But the latest class of graduates, who started high school at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, also had low ninth-grade on-track rates and low regular attendance rates during their four years. When examined in a big picture setting, it raises questions about how so many ultimately made it through high school, diplomas in hand.
In a chart ODE presented to reporters at a Tuesday media webinar, 73.6% of students in the class of 2024 were reported as on track in ninth grade (that means a student has earned a fourth of the credits they need for a diploma.) In 10th grade, 59.3% of them were regular attendees, which dropped down to 55.8% by their junior year.
In comparison, those in the class of 2019, the last full year of school before the COVID-19 pandemic, displayed ninth-grade on-track rates at 83.5% and regular attendance rates for those two grades at 75.3% and 69.5%, respectively. The kicker? The class of 2019 actually posted a lower graduation rate than their 2024 counterparts, at 80%.
At Tuesday’s webinar, Dan Farley, ODE’s assistant superintendent of research, assessment, data and accountability, said the class of 2024 benefited from expansions in after-school learning and summer school, which could accommodate time they spent outside the classroom.
Department director Dr. Charlene Williams said it was important to look at multiple data sources for a fuller story, citing that students are passing courses and do well in terms of grade-point average. She said the department does want indicators to align, but cited the state’s “love-hate relationship” with assessment. “We have a ways to go, to be clear,” she added.
In 2023, the state suspended assessment of essential skills as a graduation requirement through the 2027–28 academic year, a result of state Senate Bill 744. The last time proving proficiency was a requirement was back in 2019. That assessment had previously required students to prove mastery of reading, writing and math through standardized testing or submitting work samples.
As The Oregonian reported at the time, proponents of suspending the requirement said it “did not translate to meaningful improvements in students’ post high school success.” Critics said it would devalue the Oregon diploma. (Students in the state still must meet credit requirements to get a diploma.)
“One of the things that I think is undersold because people have different interpretations about what’s important in terms of assessing readiness is Oregon and its 24 credit requirement is rigorous amongst most states in terms of requirements for graduation,” Williams said.
Locally, the picture is also less rosy. Portland Public Schools posted a higher graduation rate than it did for the class of 2023, going from 84.5% to 86%. But the David Douglas and Parkrose school districts both saw shifts in the opposite direction. David Douglas reported a 70.1% rate, down 2.7 percentage points from the year before, and Parkrose posted a 71.9% graduation rate, down 4.1 percentage points from the year before.
WW could not immediately reach officials at PPS or David Douglas for comment.
Michael Lopes-Serrao, the superintendent at Parkrose, says he was concerned by the drop in graduation rates in the district, particularly for historically underserved students. But he noted that the way ODE calculates graduation rates presents a real challenge for his district. That’s because the department calculates cohort size as students who entered a high school in 2020-21 and only removes them if they are deceased, emigrated to another country, or provided the district with a documented transfer out of Oregon public schools.
“If a student starts with us as a freshman and doesn’t enroll in another school, or they move out of state and we don’t have a record of it, we take on the responsibility of that student graduating even though they no longer attend Parkrose,” Lopes-Serrao says.
Lopes-Serrao adds that the school district graduated 228 of the 246 students who were with them last school year—a 92% rate. But he notes ODE counts the district as having 298 students “because there are more than 50 students who did not reenroll in a school in Oregon that left us sometime during their high school career.”
“Our capacity to track down those students is limited even though we dedicate a role to dropout prevention,” he says. “Tracking students who leave is challenging with our limited resources, particularly when they leave the state. Many kids are forced to move due to housing and we do not see or hear from them again.”