Portland’s Class of 2024 Graduated With Poor Readiness Rate

Portland Public Schools released its latest student achievement numbers last week, and the results suggest a significant portion of the class of 2024 graduated without being prepared for college or the workforce.

The district’s posted 84% graduation rate stood in contrast to a 69.1% post-secondary readiness rate—a measure of whether students leave high school with the skills needed for higher education or a job. High schoolers at PPS may demonstrate post-secondary readiness via six routes, which include completion of advanced courses or career technical pathways. Others may demonstrate proficiency on standardized tests like the SAT or ACT.

But even as graduation rates across the district have remained relatively stable, post-secondary readiness has fallen by 4.5 percentage points since the class of 2021. That decline is much more pronounced for Black students (down about 10 points) and Hispanic students (down about 17).

The latest class was in eighth grade when the COVID-19 pandemic struck.

Margaret Calvert, an assistant superintendent, says the district employs different strategies to help marginalized students succeed. “The key is to remove barriers [to course participation], which leads to focused preparation in the freshman and sophomore years so students can not only access college-level coursework and advanced coursework, but then find success,” Calvert says.

PPS’s data reflects broader mismatched trends in Oregon. While graduation rates soared statewide for the class of 2024, those students also posted higher rates of chronic absenteeism and lower rates of ninth grade readiness.