![“Gulf Breeze High School guidance counselors and teachers monitor the progression of every student that attends our school,” Danny Brothers, the school’s principal, said. “Special attention is given to students considered at risk of graduating due to academic, discipline and/or truancy struggles.” [Pixabay.com]](http://127.0.0.1/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/ghows-DA-4d499a79-eb7c-2d0c-e053-0100007f2a3f-226f4277.jpeg)
Editor’s Note: This continues our series on health and socioeconomic issues affecting Santa Rosa County.
Based on social and economic factors, Santa Rosa ranks second in Florida out of 67 counties, according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute’s latest County Health Rankings.
The high school graduation rate in the U.S. reached an all-time high in 2016 at 83 percent, which mirrors that of Santa Rosa County; Florida’s rate is 78 percent.
The national rate suggests that roughly four out of five students graduated with a regular high school diploma within four years of the first time they started ninth grade, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Asian/Pacific Islander students had the highest graduation rate with 89 percent, followed by Caucasian with 87 percent, Hispanic with 76 percent, African-American with 73 percent and American Indian/Alaska Native with 70 percent.
‘THERE IS A GAP’
The center shows a correlation between this increase and the type of coursework taken by high school graduates.
In 1990, the percentage of high school graduates who took courses in mathematics was approximately 34 percent. In 2009, the percentage increased to 49 percent. The same is true with science courses, with an increase from 46 percent in 1990 to 60 percent in 2009, according to the findings.
But that’s just one part of the story.
“The good news about America’s high school graduation rate — it has hit a modern record of 83.2 percent — should come with a warning label: students from low-income families are still lagging far behind other kid,” Emily Hanford, senior education correspondent for American Public Media, was qouted as saying in the Washington Post.
“Grad rates are up across the board, but if you compare students from low-income families to students who are not low-income, there is a gap of about 14 percentage points.”
EFFECTS OF POVERTY
Why are students from families in poverty more likely to not graduate from high school? According to the Washington Post, it mostly involves the increase of high-poverty schools.
A high-poverty school is one where more than 75 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals.
The most recent data by NCES shows that one in four public schools in the U.S. is a high-poverty school, which is double what it was in the 1990s.
According to the Consortium for Policy Research in Education, high-poverty schools have trouble staffing their schools with quality teachers and supplying students with necessary materials such as textbooks and various forms of technology.
Santa Rosa County’s graduation rates are one of the highest in the state because our high schools are not considered high-poverty.
Approximately 46 percent of students attending school in the Santa Rosa County School District qualified for the free or reduced lunch program in the 2016-2017 school year, according to the district’s Office of Federal Programs.
However, there are still students from low-income families who need assistance.
AVAILABLE ASSISTANCE
United Way of Santa Rosa County hosts a school supply drive each year to make sure students of low-income families have what they need for schools.
They also annually fund local organizations that continuously provide support to low-income students, like the YMCA of Northwest Florida, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northwest Florida and the Early Learning Coalition of Santa Rosa County.
The Santa Rosa District School Board offers a program called Title I. Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act provides financial assistance to local educational agencies and schools with high numbers or high percentages of children from low-income families to help ensure that all students meet challenging state academic standards. Federal funds are currently allocated through four statutory formulas based primarily on census poverty estimates and the cost of education in each state.
According to the Office of Federal Programs, unless a participating school is already operating a school-wide program, the school must focus Title I services on children who are failing, or most at-risk of failing, to meet state academic standards.
Schools in which children from low-income families make up at least 40 percent of enrollment are eligible to use Title I funds for school-wide programs that serve all children in the school.
The administration of each school also helps students reach graduation.
“Gulf Breeze High School guidance counselors and teachers monitor the progression of every student that attends our school,” Danny Brothers, the school’s principal, said. “Special attention is given to students considered at risk of graduating due to academic, discipline and/or truancy struggles.”
Milton High School Assistant Principal Chad Rowell said, "Our graduation rate over about a six- or seven-year period went from 75 percent to 91 percent. If you look at the number of students at Milton High School, about one out of every six or seven kids that get a diploma in Santa Rosa County are coming out of Milton High School.
"So if you take those two factors into consideration … those two factors mean that our climb from 75 to 91 percent was one of the biggest factors in fueling the countywide improvement."
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Graduation rates reach all-time high