For the 11^th consecutive year, Virginia Beach City Public Schools (VBCPS) has reached a record-high On-Time Graduation (OTG) rate, which now stands at 93.9%. In addition, the division's dropout rate decreased to 3%-the lowest on record. VBCPS also outperformed Virginia's rates of 91.5% for OTG and 5.6% for dropouts.

"These remarkable numbers are testament to the hard work of our teachers, counselors, coaches and families who are invested in educating the whole child," said VBCPS Superintendent Dr. Aaron Spence. "This VBCPS community endeavors every single day to meet the social and emotional needs of our students, while providing the best transformational learning experience in Virginia. We are committed to sending young learners across that graduation stage prepared for whatever calls to them, be it college, the military or a career."

Since Dr. Spence's tenure, which began in June 2014, the division's graduation rate has increased by 5.4 percentage points.

On-time graduation and dropout rates for the Class of 2019 were released Oct. 8 by the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE), which has been tracking this information since 2008. The on-time graduation rate is based on the percentage of students in a graduation cohort who earned a Board of Education-approved diploma within four years of entering high school. In addition to these new overall records, a closer look at VBCPS data reveals impressive gains in key areas:

• African-American students' graduation rate increased to 92.4%-a 2.1 percentage-point increase from 2018 and the largest gain of any VBCPS demographic group. Additionally, the dropout rate for African-American students continued declining from 7.0% in 2015 to 4.0% in 2019.
• Students with disabilities as a group continued to steadily increase their graduation rate, which now stands at 91.7%.
• Female students as a group continued to increase their graduation rate from 94.6% in 2018 to 96.1% in 2019.
• Nine of the division's 12 high schools had graduation rates above 90%. The remaining three high schools have graduation rates near the 90% mark, ranging from approximately 88.7% to 89.8%.

These records add to the division's string of recent successes in student achievement, including all its 82 testing sites being accredited for a third consecutive year.

Learn more about graduation or dropout rates by visiting the VDOE's website.

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Department of Communications and Community Engagement, [email protected]

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