BROOKSVILLE – For the 5th consecutive year, Hernando County School District improved its student graduation rate as reported by the Florida Department of Education January 10th. The 2016-17 graduation rate for Hernando is up 1.5 percentage points to a new high of 82.6%.
Hernando Schools continue to remain ahead of the state’s graduation rate reported as 82.3% for 2016-17. While still below the state’s average, English Language Learners also showed a higher graduation rate than last year at 60.8%. The most significant improvement came from the District’s Exceptional Student Education (ESE) subgroup. At 68.2%, ESE students’ rate jumped by 12 percentage points over 2016.
For the second year in a row Central High School was the biggest mover with a 5.4 percentage point gain over last year’s graduation rate improving to 87.8%. In just two years, Central has improved their graduation rate by over 13 percentage points. “We are so excited to see the hard work of our staff and our students is validated by this data. Helping every student succeed is our mission and whether we used mentoring, direct outreach or steady tracking of their growth, our students have joined with us and these gains are the result.” Kelly Slusser, Principal of Central High said.
Nature Coast Technical High (NCTH) has the highest graduation rate out of the five Hernando high schools with a graduation rate of 89.9%, up 1.7 percentage points from 2016. “For any school, seeing graduation rates improve means so much to the staff and, of course to students and families. The numbers represent a culmination of months of collaboration, planning, instruction, support and hard work. We could not be more proud.” NCTH Principal, Toni Ann Noyes said.
2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-2017
District Grad Rate: 78%, 81.1%, 82.6%
Central High: 74.70%, 82.40%, 87.8%
Hernando High: 74.50%, 80.1%, 79.7%
F.W. Springstead: 80.30%, 87.10%, 89%
Nature Coast Technical: 81.5%, 88.2%, 89.9%
Weeki Wachee High: 83%, 90%, 87.9%
“These graduation results are one more indicator that our school district continues its progress toward being recognized as a district of excellence. We are Team Hernando proud!” Superintendent, Dr. Lori Romano said.
(Submitted by HCSD)