Richmond Public Schools revealed a significant increase in graduation rates from the 2023-2024 academic year at Monday evening’s School Board meeting. 

As part of the Dreams4RPS long-term plan, RPS Director of Data Analytics John Grove and the RPS graduation team presented updated data for the Class of 2024.

Grove reported that overall graduation rates increased by six percentage points, rising from 72% to 78%. Graduation rates for English learners saw a dramatic 19% rise, and Latino students also experienced a notable 17% increase.

“RPS is on the rise,” Grove said to the board. “To frame the success for all medium to large divisions in the state with more than 500 students in the graduating cohort, the RPS 6% increase is the largest increase in the state.”

Richmond High School for the Arts posted a significant 15% increase in graduation rates, while Huguenot High School saw an 8% rise in graduation rates for English learners and Latino students. Jennifer Blackwell, director of multilingual learner success, informed the board that the division launched the Bilingual Leap Tutoring Program last year, hiring 10 bilingual tutors to offer both cultural and academic support for multilingual learners.

“They contributed greatly to the 19% increase that we saw for our graduation rates for multilingual learners,” Blackwell said. “So, we will continue along with that strategy for this year.”

However, graduation rates for economically disadvantaged groups did not show a dramatic difference in both the 2023 and 2024 cohorts. To continue increasing the graduation rates, one of RPS’s initiatives is to re-enroll students who have dropped out with a focus on Latino and English learners students.

Board member Shavonda Dixon-Fernandez, 9th District, also suggested to the team to be mindful of using the word “dropout,” as it can have a negative connotation.

“Words have power, and so when you use the word, ‘dropout,’ it just has a strong connotation,” Dixon-Fernandez said. “I know we know what we’re talking about, but if we could explore maybe another term that really speaks to their future and not their mistakes, that would be great.”

The School Board members praised the RPS graduation team for their efforts. The graduation team said they would continue to implement these strategies for this school year.

“It looks like from one year to the next that we made this tremendous jump, but it was … years of hard work and dedication that we poured into it,” Blackwell said.

“I think that all of our students and RPS have the ability to continue making our gains for graduation, so I hope that we can continue to close those gaps.”