COLUMBUS, Ind. — Local school officials say that while the COVID-19 didn’t have much of an effect on 2020 graduation rates, 2021 could show the aftershocks of the pandemic.
According to data from the Indiana Department of Education, the 2020 graduation rates for local public schools are as follows:
Columbus North High School — 87.90% (436 graduates out of 496), up from 86.42% in 2019.
Columbus East High School — 85.01% (295 graduates out of 347), down from 86.37% in 2019.
Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. overall — 86.71% (731 graduates out of 843), up from 86.40% in 2019.
Hauser Jr./Sr. High School — 91.23% (52 graduates out of 57), up from 86.30% in 2019.
School officials said that Columbus Signature Academy New Tech does not have a separate graduation rate; its graduates are included in the home schools for each student, East or North.
The Indiana Department of Education said the state’s 2020 state graduation rate for Indiana was 87.69%. This rate “reflects the State Board of Education’s waiver of the Graduation Qualifying Exam requirement for the 2020 cohort, which could not be administered due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” state officials said.
BCSC
For BCSC, there was some slight improvement in both North’s graduation rate and that of the school corporation overall, though East went down a little bit.
BCSC Director of Secondary Education Bill Jensen said he felt OK about the numbers, which were consistent and weren’t really affected by COVID-19.
“The state had a ‘hold harmless’ for seniors for second semester, so wherever you were at the end of seven semesters, you were able to graduate,” he said.
BCSC examines five-year trends, so there is some concern about the data from Columbus East, which was headed lower, he said.
And 2021 is bringing its own unique challenges, he said.
“Next year will be an anomaly,” he said. “… It’s almost like starting over, because of the pandemic.”
The pandemic may have an effect on graduation rates for the next several years. Jensen said that while he hopes that the 2021 graduation rates will remain steady, he’ll be surprised and amazed if that were to happen. He said that many students have become frustrated with eLearning.
“We’re seeing higher rates of failures than we have in the past, higher rates of students who are not obtaining the credits that they need — again, a lot of them who are just eLearning worn out,” he said. “And there’s some students who do not have access to all the eLearning that they may need, especially depending on their circumstances.”
The school corporation would be in “worse shape” both now and in the future if it didn’t have its iGrad program or the McDowell Education Center, he said.
While BCSC wants to improve graduation rates for all students, the school corporation is also concerned about the effect of the pandemic on student subgroups. While English Language Learners students saw some improvement in graduation rates, these same students likely struggle more with virtual learning than in-person, due to language barriers.
According to state data, the graduation rate for the school corp.’s ELL students was 94.87% (37 out of 39) in 2020, which is up significantly from 73.53% (25 out of 34) in 2019.
Jensen said that overcoming the effects of the pandemic will be a challenge.
“We have students who — I wouldn’t say experienced ‘loss of learning’, but again, who have not been able to get the full range of learning opportunities that they should have had, due to the pandemic,” he said.
It’s possible that if more CARES Act funds come in, the school corporation might look to use the funding to help students supplement that needed learning.
“Getting them back to school as soon as possible is so important,” he added. BCSC is currently using a hybrid model for its secondary students, who do eLearning three days a week and come in-person for the other two.
Flat Rock-Hawcreek
For Hauser High School, the increased graduation rate is mainly due to a difference in class sizes — 52 out of 57 in 2020 vs. 63 out of 73 in 2019.
“I think anytime we’re over 90%, we’re in pretty good shape,” said Hauser Principal David Wintin. “Of course, our goal is to get everybody through. I always say that our number one job is student graduation, whether we have to hold their hands to get them through, or pull them kicking and screaming.”
Wintin said that for a smaller school, each student is more than a percent, so the difference between the two years’ rates is likely just the difference of a few kids.
“We don’t want to lose any of them, but sometimes life gets in the way,” he said.
COVID-19 didn’t seem to have an impact on the 2020 graduation rate, he said. However, the pandemic has presented some challenges for the Class of 2021.
“Since we went virtual in November, we did have quite a few more kids struggle to get things completed,” he said. “So we have a few seniors from first semester that have to retake some courses to be able to graduate.”
Flat Rock-Hawcreek schools resumed in-person learning on Jan. 11.
Wintin said that it’s difficult to make predictions about 2021 graduation rates. School officials have been meeting with seniors to ensure that they’re on track to graduate, as well as getting those who failed courses last semester into those classes again. He added that since many of these classes are online, the school will be staying focused on these kids and “giving them the assistance they need to make up credits.”
“I think we have potential to stay in the same ballpark where we’ve been the last three years,” he said. “But there’s also a considerable unknown about what’s going to happen this semester too, as far as being able to stay in person or the need to go virtual if things get worse again. The unknown is greater than it’s ever been.”
