Graduation rate drops nearly 10% for African Americans in Modesto City Schools
.JPG "Modesto High School had its senior class walk the stage for graduation Thursday, May 25, 2023 at Modesto Junior College.")
Modesto City Schools has reported its student achievement rates for the 2022-23 school year, which show that around 83% of African Americans graduated — a nearly 10% decrease from the previous year.
Hispanic, white and students with disabilities saw a slight drop in their graduation rates, while English learners saw an increase.
Dropout rates also increased among all reported student groups in the 2022-23 school year. The district’s overall rate was around 4%, an increase of 2% from the previous year. English learner students had the highest dropout rate, of nearly 9%, while African Americans followed at nearly 7%.
The district did not provide graduation rates or dropout rates for the 2019-2020 school year because “due to the COVID closures, data from the 2019-2021 school years is not consistent,” staff reported to the Board of Education on Nov. 6.
Superintendent Sara Noguchi said the district recognizes and is concerned about the decline in graduation rate in the African American student group. She said that the African American student group is much smaller than other student groups in the district, which means the movement of one or two students can affect the percentage dramatically.
“Having said that, there is no question that even one student not making it to graduation is something we take very seriously,” Noguchi said. “Making sure students graduate and that they are prepared to thrive after graduation, is the core of our mission.”
According to the California Department of Education, in Modesto City’s high schools, African Americans made up around 3% of the district during the 2022-23 school year. In Stanislaus County and the state, African Americans make up around 2% and 5% of the student population.
Noguchi said it’s critical for students to attend school every day because chronic absenteeism for African American students is higher than other student groups statewide and within Modesto City Schools.
“This disparity in chronic absenteeism begins in junior high school. So, it’s also important to get students involved in extracurricular activities and to reach out to school counselors for help in confronting obstacles.”
Gladys Williams, member of the NAACP Modesto-Stanislaus Branch education committee, said they are seeing this decline in all districts because of the pandemic.
Williams said seniors who graduated last year were in eighth and ninth grades when the pandemic first hit and spent most of their time at home and on their computers.
“The district has done well with their before-school and after-school programs,” she said. “We, as the African American community, need to pull together and try to support our students as well and offer after-school programs to try to give them extra support on the weekends.”
This story was originally published November 10, 2023 at 7:00 AM.
