Rochester Public Schools reports 10 percentage point drop in graduation rate among Black students

Mar. 28—ROCHESTER — Although the 2023 graduation rate among white students at Rochester Public Schools remained mostly unchanged from the year before, the rates of multiple minority groups declined, including a drop of more than 10 percentage points among Black students.

The Minnesota Department of Education released the graduation rates on Thursday. In 2023, RPS had an overall graduation rate of 83.99%, down 1.9% from 2022. The statewide graduation rate was 83.34%.

"Last year, we had very significant positive gains in our high school graduation rates," RPS Superintendent Kent Pekel said in a statement. "This year, we've seen some movement in the other direction. When we see changes in our data from one year to the next, we need to remember that school improvement is a marathon and not a sprint."

Among demographic subgroups in 2023, white students had the highest graduation rate at 90.69%. Students identifying as "two or more races," closely followed at 90.12%.

Black students had a graduation rate of 74.04%, representing a drop of 10.35% from the year before, which was 84.39%. That year-to-year drop was greater than the year-to-year increase of 8.69% that Black students gained in 2022.

In 2019, the last year before the COVID-19 pandemic, the graduation rate among Black RPS students was 80.29%.

Asian students had a 2023 graduation rate of 82.39%, a drop of 6.92% from the previous year. Hispanic students had a rate of 64.48%, which equated to a drop of 5.89%.

Pekel said the district doesn't have an exact explanation for the decreases in graduation rates, but there's several things that could be contributing to the situation. One explanation, he said, is that there can be differences between student cohorts within the same group.

He also said the rates reflect a year when the district really began holding students accountable for their learning following the pandemic.

"It was a year when we began talking about the academic rigor that's necessary to truly be ready to succeed in post-secondary education and careers," Pekel said.

The graduation rate also decreased among several other factions. The rate among students who qualify for free and reduced-priced lunch fell from 74.21% in 2022 to 70.60%. The rate among English learner students declined from 69.23% in 2022 to 66.44% in 2023. And the rate among homeless students decreased from 56.6% in 2022 to 49.37% in 2023.

Among the district's three main high schools, Mayo had the highest graduation rate at 92.02%, followed by John Marshall at 90.14% and Century at 88.62%. RPS Online, the district's web-based school option, had a graduation rate of 62.71%. The district's Alternative Learning Center had a rate of 56.57%.

"What really matters is the longterm trend," Pekel said in the statement. "And I am confident that RPS is headed in the right direction."

Among the school districts surrounding Rochester, Chatfield had the highest graduation rate at 97.62%. It was followed by Kasson-Mantorville at 97.02%, Byron at 94.59%, Plainview-Elgin-Millville at 94.12%, Pine Island at 92.08%, Stewartville at 90.96%, and Dover-Eyota at 90.22%