School report card shows students need help with English language skills
Graduation rates are up slightly
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - The Alaska’s Public Schools: A Report Card to the Public looks at changes in graduation rates and dropout rates when compared to the past 5 school years. For the School Year (SY) 2023-2024 the overall graduation rate for students across Alaska was 78.31%.
While graduation rates are up slightly, state testing results are also included in the Report Card and show a slight decline across the board. The Alaska System of Academic Readiness (AK STAR) is a standardized test for students in grades 3-9 in English Language Arts (ELA) and mathematics.
Looking at ELA for all tested students across the state and in all grades, 40.19% are listed at Needing Support. 28.32% are Approaching Proficiency and 21.94% are listed as Proficient. 9.56% are considered Advanced. Compared to the 2022-2023 school year, that is an increase of .56% in students who are Needing Support, a decrease of .25% for those Approaching Proficiency and a .02% increase of students listed as Proficient. The number of students considered Advanced declined by .32%
The report shows the year-over-year change in graduation rates for all students in the state as well as breaking it down by gender, ethnicity and underserved populations. As a whole, the graduation rate for the state has been improving over the past five school years, with an overall improvement rate between SY 2022-2023 and SY 2023-2024 of .4% and an overall change from the SY 2019-2020 of .99%.
The most dramatic increases between the last two school years with African-American students which saw a 3.74% increase in SY 2023-2024 when compared to the previous school year. Graduation rates among Hispanic students also increased in 2022-2023 school year by 4.55% over SY 2022-2023. Students with Disabilities graduation rates increased by 1.12%.These are more dramatic when compared to the previous school years of SY 2022-2023 to SY 2021-2022. That shows an overall increase of 12.7 of graduation of African-American students, an increase of 5.16% for Hispanic students and an increase of 5.67% for Students with Disabilities.
Student populations that saw a decline in graduation rates between SY 2022-2023 and SY 2023-2024 were Alaska Native/American Indian students by -1.36%, Economically Disadvantaged students by .91% and English Learners by -1.96%. When looking at previous school years of 2022-2023 compared to SY 2021-2022, where both Alaska Native/American Indian students and Economically Disadvantaged students saw increases in graduation rates, Alaska Native/American Indian students saw an overall decline of 3.7% and Economically Disadvantaged students saw a decline of 3%.
Dropout rates for all Alaskan students went up by .01% between 2022-2023 and 2023-2024. The most notable changes by populations are a 1.5% decrease in dropouts among African-American students and a 1.06% increase among English Learners and a .62% increase among Alaska Native/American Indian.
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