Valley, foothills outdo state in on-time high school grad rates

California’s on-time high school graduation rate inched up to 80.8 percent, a 0.4 percent rise, with the most improvement seen in numbers of graduating Latinos, now at 76.4 percent. In Northern San Joaquin Valley and foothill communities, however, local numbers outshone the state’s totals, figures released by the state Tuesday showed.

Graduation rates for Calaveras and Mariposa counties topped 90 percent. Merced and Tuolumne counties got more than 84 percent of their students across the stage. Stanislaus County graduated 82 percent of its Class of 2014.

Among individual schools in Stanislaus County, Pitman High in Turlock, Orestimba High in Newman and Escalon High all topped 96 percent of their seniors graduating in four years. Gregori, Downey and Enochs highs in Modesto and Central Valley High in Ceres all came in at or higher than 95 percent.

In Merced County, more than 96 percent of Merced High, Hilmar High and Dos Palos High students graduated on time. Livingston High and Los Banos High topped a 94 percent graduation rate. Buhach Colony High, Mariposa High, Delhi High and Atwater all beat 93 percent.

Latinos also saw more success in this area than in the state as a whole. In the sprawling Merced Union High School District, where a majority of the students are Latino, 90 percent of Latino students walked the stage.

Assistant Superintendent Tammie Calzadillas credited the strong performance to engaging the students. All the district’s high schools have about 90 percent of their students engaged in sports, clubs, band and career education classes. “That’s how you keep ’em coming,” she said. “Many times when they won’t come for the English class or a math class, they will come for a culinary class or an ag program.”

Turlock Unified, Ceres Unified and Patterson Unified handed diplomas to more than 87 percent of their Latino students, beating the state by more than 10 percent. Modesto high schools graduated 82 percent.

The overall graduation rate for the Modesto City Schools district, which serves nearly 15,000 high school students, crept up 0.2 percent to 84.4 percent.

“This year’s increase is a small step, but it is a step in the right direction,” said Modesto Superintendent Pam Able.

She credited the shift upward to a districtwide focus on building relationships with students. “Students come to school each day in response to staff efforts to reach out and show they care,” she said.

The district’s rate of graduation for black students, however, fell by more than 9 percent, to 73 percent. The drop means 25 fewer students graduated on time than last year, the district said. About half of those students are still in school, finishing up in a fifth year, or earned a certificate of completion, neither of which counts toward the on-time graduation rate.

“We will spend some time looking further into the data to see what we can learn and where we can do better,” the district said in a statement.

Patterson Unified had the best success with black students, with 89 percent graduating, roughly 20 percent higher than the state average, noted Patterson Superintendent Phil Alfano.

“I believe our results come from the development of our No Excuses program, focused curriculum and a vision for our students that isn’t simply about chasing test scores from year to year. We educate the whole child and do whatever it takes to help them succeed,” Alfano said in an email.

While most its numbers remained steady, Turlock Unified posted a major 17 percent bump in graduation rates for its special-education students, said Superintendent Sonny Da Marto. Many special-education students struggle to pass the high school exit exam, earning certificates of completion for successfully passing all their classes instead.

This story was originally published April 28, 2015 at 6:57 PM with the headline "Valley, foothills outdo state in on-time high school grad rates."