SD#3’s grad rate among state’s best

Big Horn County School District No. 3 was credited with one of the highest on-time graduation rates in the state last year, with 95.6 percent of the students in its 2023-24 cohort earning their diplomas.

Sheridan County No. 3, Washakie County No. 2, and Prairie View Community School — with just a single student in its cohort — achieved 100 percent graduation rates.  

The only other district with graduation rates higher than Big Horn No. 3 were Sublette No. 1, at 97.8%; Sublette No. 9, at 96.4%, and Fremont No. 24, at 96%.

The data released by the Wyoming Department of Education (WDE) last week shows that 43 of the 45 students in Big Horn No. 3’s 2023-24 cohort graduated on time.

The 95.6 percent graduation rate represented an improvement for the district. For the 2022-23 cohort, its graduation rate was 86.1 percent, with 31 of 36 graduating on time.

Statewide, the four-year, on-time graduation rate remained relatively consistent at 81.6 percent, a slight increase of 0.2 percent from 81.4 percent in 2022-23, according to WDE.  It reported that 6,344 students graduated in 2023-24, with 6,193 in the four-year on-time cohort—the largest class since the inception of the federal cohort rate in 2009-10. 

Wyoming’s on-time graduation rates have remained above 80 percent since 2015-16. 

“I am proud to report that graduation rates have remained steady through the COVID pandemic and continue to trend upwards in Wyoming. The increase in four-year on-time graduation rates across the state, particularly among Native American students and at alternative high schools, shows immense dedication from students and staff,” said Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder in the release.

Since the 2009-10 school year, the WDE has calculated graduation rates using the Federal Four-Year Adjusted Cohort Methodology established by the U.S. Department of Education. Students are counted in the four-year, “on-time,” high school graduation rate if they earn a diploma by September 15 following their cohort’s fourth year, but this does not include homeschool transfer students. Five- and six-year graduation rates are also calculated and can be viewed with the rest of the graduation rate data. 

Degenfelder notes, “We have received calls from several concerned administrators about how the four-year on-time federal graduation rate is calculated and the agency sees an opportunity to reexamine our methodology, especially considering our movement in school choice. Federal law, non-regulatory federal guidance from the U.S. Department of Education, and a proliferation of school choice options have created a national landscape of states with different methods of calculating federal graduation rates. I am committed to hearing all voices on this topic and will convene a working group of district superintendents, principals, and other stakeholders to evaluate and update our calculation method.”