Graduation Rates are All Over – and So Are Our Students 

By Aziah Siid | Word In BlackStudents in cap and gowns at graduation/ Pexels photo by Safari Consoler(WIB) – Historically, graduation from high school is a triumphant moment for students. celebrating the end of childhood and the unofficial start to adulthood. But a new survey shows a disturbing trend towards that milestone: national graduation rates, which had been steadily increasing for decades, have fluctuated significantly in the years during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. States and even districts are experiencing noteworthy differences in that rate, based in part on how they choose to get struggling students across the finish line — from changing state graduation requirements to hiring more staff for tutoring.Data from The Grad Partnership found that, from 2019 to 2022, about half of all states saw graduation rates fall, and whether rates went up or down depended on a school district’s location and its access to resources.& “Even as high school graduation rates and college enrollments began to rebound in the years since the height of the pandemic, there are clear signs—such as high school chronic absenteeism rates hitting 40% or more in many locales—that an easy “return to normal” is not in the offing,” according to the ...