Mike Wolanin | The Republic A 2024 tassel hangs off Zulmi Ferrer’s cap as she waits to take part in her commencement ceremony at Columbus North High School in Columbus, Ind., Saturday, May 25, 2024.
High school graduation rates for Bartholomew County’s public school students dipped in one district and saw impressive gains in another, according to data released by the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE).
State officials said 90.01% of Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. students graduated during the 2023-24 school year, up nearly 7 percentage points from the previous year. It’s the district’s highest graduation rate since at least 2014-15, the last year of data available on the IDOE website, and the first time BCSC has reached a graduation rate of at least 90% since the 2015-16 school year.
In Flat Rock-Hawcreek School Corp., 56 of 64 students graduated last year, the data shows. The 87.5% graduation rate is down from 95.35% during the 2022-23 school year, although the class size at the district’s only secondary school in Hauser Jr.-Sr. High School was 22 students smaller.
Indiana’s overall graduation rate ticked up from 88.98% in 2022-23 to 90.23% during 2023-24, which IDOE officials said is the highest graduation rate on record. It eclipses the state’s previous best of 90.1% in 2011-12.
“Over the past year, we have celebrated a number of successes in K-12 education, and there is urgency to continue this positive momentum for Indiana students,” said Katie Jenner, state secretary of education. “As a state, we have seen literacy rates increase for the third consecutive year, chronic absenteeism rates improve for the second year in a row, and today, the highest state graduation rate on record.”
BCSC’s high schools saw healthy increases in their individual graduation rates as well. At Columbus North, 89.08% of seniors graduated in 2023-24, up from 83.36% in 2022-23. Similarly, Columbus East had a graduation rate of 90.95%, up from 83.49% the previous school year.
East’s figure is its highest since at least 2014-15, beating its previous best graduation rate of 90.6% in 2017-18. Graduation rates at North hit a high mark of 91.1% in 2014-15.
Flat Rock-Hawcreek Superintendent Shawn Price said school officials knew the graduation rates would be lower this year, in part because of the smaller class-size.
“Even by our standards it was a small class, so we knew that any fluctuation in our numbers, any students that had moved out or didn’t complete were going to count,” Price said. “We ended up just below the state average, which is not typical for us, but it was expected for this class.”
“Every class has its individual situations and challenges,” Price continued. “And then when you throw those in on top of a very small class, it can make, percentage-wise, what seems like a very large shift.”
In forecasting upcoming graduating classes, Price said administrators “don’t expect that percentage to stick with other classes.”
BCSC officials were pleased to see their progress, but it didn’t come as a surprise.
“I’d like to tell you that I’m surprised that we made that big of an increase, but I’m not really,” said Charles Edwards, director of secondary education. “We were working on the things that lead to a graduation rate like that.”
Edwards said the rates show that BCSC is results-oriented and willing to work hard on things that produce those results.
One of the most paramount contributors to the increase, according to Edwards, was BCSC’s new team cohort model that began last year.
The model is a sort of case management-type system in which a team of teachers and administrators connect students with needed services and resources. As classes moves up a grade, a particular student will stay with the same team of teachers and administrators who monitor their progress and work with students on any interventions if needed.
“When you’ve got a team of people who are committed to helping a specific grade level, then the focus becomes that much clearer,” Edwards said.
School district officials took a look at large Indiana school districts with a similar demographic make-up as BCSC and found that the school corporation well-outperformed its peers.
“Our percentage rate point increase of 6.6 was the highest,” Edwards said when compared to 24 other similar districts in the state. “We were the highest in terms of the gain— everybody else was around 1%.”
“If we relied on our old methods and did things the way that we did prior to last school year, we’d probably be in that similar range, about a percent, maybe better,” Edwards continued. “But the cohort model certainly gave us a leg up in terms of what we were able to do.”
Another metric administrators believe shows the team cohort model is paying dividends is through the school corporation’s average-daily-membership (ADM).
BCSC’s 2024-25 fall enrollment is up from last year by 20 students, even though they were expected to be down 53, officials said in November. More specifically, in the previous eight years BCSC averaged a loss of about 87 students annually between grades 10 and 12, and this year the number of those students is down just 41.
“I think as folks find those successes in the classroom, it’s a little bit easier to continue to come back day after day when you’re working with a team of people that you know are invested in your success,” Edwards said.
The administrator also pointed out the vast addition in the number of technical honors diplomas BCSC offers, going from giving 28 out in 2022-23 to 53 last school year.
The IDOE data breaks down the rates into different demographic groups as well.
More than a quarter of BCSC’s graduating seniors last year were on free or reduced price lunch. Of those students, 96.63% graduated, more than 12 percentage points higher than the previous year. The graduation rate for those students in the 2021-22 and 2020-21 school years were 72.34% and 75.31%.
BCSC’s growing English language learner (ELL) population experienced increased success as well, with all but one of the 49 ELL students in last year’s cohort graduating. BCSC said 42 of 50 ELL students graduated in 2023.
Another notable takeaway from the data is how much improved BCSC’s male student graduation rate was last year. That student population’s graduation rate was 90.44%, up from 79.06% during the 2022-23 school year.
The graduation rate for female students was 89.81% in 2023-24, following graduation rates of 87.38%, 80.84% and 85.78% in the previous three school years.
