Virginia Beach City Public Schools’ (VBCPS) Class of 2016 achieved both the division’s highest On-Time Graduation (OTG) rate and lowest dropout rate since 2008, the first year the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) began using cohort-based calculations for these reports.

According to data released today by the VDOE, 91.3 percent of the division’s 2016 graduates earned their diploma in four years. This is a 1.5 percentage point increase compared to last year and 7.1 percentage points higher than 2008. The VBCPS Class of 2016 also posted the division’s lowest cohort dropout rate at 4.7 percent, which is 2.3 percentage points lower than the Class of 2008.

Other VBCPS successes in this year’s data include:

• Seven of 11 of the division’s high schools have OTG rates above 90 percent.
• Seven of 11 of the division’s high schools achieved increases in the graduation rate as well as decreases in the dropout rate.
• The OTG rate for African-American students increased 2.5 percentage points compared to 2015 and is now at 88.2 percent while the dropout rate decreased to 5.8 percent.
• Economically-disadvantaged students showed the largest OTG rate increase of any student subgroup with a gain this year of 2.8 percentage points.

These gains are in addition to the growth the school division saw earlier this month in the number of schools earning accreditation, which is based on Standards of Learning (SOL) pass rates. Ninety-four percent - or 77 of 82 VBCPS testing schools - earned full accreditation for the 2016-2017 school year. VBCPS also outperformed the nation for the fifth consecutive year on all three components of the SAT test, according to news announced yesterday by the College Board. Furthermore, the 2016 SAT results also showed that Virginia Beach continued to lead all Hampton Roads school divisions in scores for reading, math and writing.

“These reports are proof that not only are we keeping students engaged in school and committed to their education, we are doing so while maintaining a high standard of excellence for them,” said Dr. Aaron Spence, VBCPS superintendent. “We want to see our students not only leave us with a diploma but, more importantly, we want to see them prepared to tackle their post-high school aspirations, whether that be entering college, pursuing a career or joining the military.”

For more information on the OTG and dropout rates for all Virginia schools and school divisions, visit the VDOE website.

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Department of Media and Communications, [email protected]

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