Volusia Graduation Rate Up, Flagler Rate Down

Daytona Beach, FL – The results are in, and it looks like Volusia County’s graduation rate rose while Flagler County’s dropped. The graduation rates for both counties are rather close to each other and currently beat out the state’s overall graduation rate of 90.1 percent.  In Volusia County, the rate went up by 4.2 percent, ending up at 91.9 percent; the highest the county has seen so far. In fact, the county’s graduation rate has steadily increased over the past few years, jumping from 71.6 percent in the 2014-2015 school year to the rate it is now.  Between the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 school years, Volusia saw its highest graduation rate increase, jumping 5.8 percent from 78.7 percent to 84.5 percent. Flagler, meanwhile, wasn’t far off from Volusia County with an overall graduation rate of 91.1 percent. This however marks the first decrease in graduation rates for the county in the past five school years, as the 2019-2020 school year saw a graduation rate of 92.3 percent.  Despite that drop, Flagler’s graduation rate still rose from 81.1 percent in the 2016-2017 school year, to what it is today. In fact, Flagler had a higher graduation rate than Volusia up until the 2020-2021 school year. Across the state, the change in graduation rates is much more miniscule. In the 2019-2020 school year, Florida saw an overall rate of 90 percent even. That only went up by just .1 percent in the 2020-2021 school year. As for where that compares with other states, Florida is ranked 20 in the nation, tied with Indiana and Kansas, for graduation rates—using the most recent rates available to all states from the 2018-2019 school year. While graduation rates are up for the most part, a report from the Florida Department of Education found that rates are down in certain race, ethnicity, and gender groups. Between the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years, the graduation rates for Hispanic/Latino, Asian, mixed race, and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students have all dropped. The drops are rather small, with the largest decrease of 1 percent belonging to Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students. And even though Florida’s graduation rate is 90.1 percent, that doesn’t mean 9.9 percent of students dropped out. The DOE’s report found that 3.2 percent of students dropped out, while the remaining 6.7 percent are still enrolled in school.