SDIRC Maintains #1 Ranking for Graduation Rates

SDIRC Maintains #1 Ranking for Graduation Rates
Posted on 01/05/2022

Vero Beach, FL, January 5, 2022– Yesterday, Florida's 2020-2021 high school graduation rates were released, and we are proud to highlight some key areas of progress as well as information regarding our relative standing in comparison to other districts.

Teri L. Barenborg, School Board Chairman, stated, “The School Board is committed to maximizing the potential for all students. We are proud of the district's progress in the area of graduation rates and celebrate both the Superintendent and the many employees that took part in helping our graduates achieve this important goal in life.” 

Superintendent of Schools, Dr. David K. Moore, added, “Our students, administrators, and staff members have worked very hard to realize these accomplishments despite the numerous challenges we faced during the 2020-2021 academic year.  We are very proud of our district’s achievements and understand that there is always more work to be done.”

  • For the 2020-2021 school year, the School District of Indian River County achieved a 95% graduation rate, improving from a rate of 93.4% during the 2019-2020 school year. The SDIRC maintained its #1 ranking for graduation rates in comparison to other districts on the Treasure Coast. 
  • The SDIRC has significantly improved our graduation ranking over time when compared to Florida's 67 districts from 21st in 2018-2019 and 7th in 2019-2020 to 5th for the 2020-2021 school year. Our District not only falls in the top 5 Florida districts for high school graduation rates, but also has outperformed the state graduation rate for the 11th consecutive year.
  • Sebastian River High School earned a graduation rate of 96.5% for 2020-2021, increasing just over 5 percentage points from the previous year's graduation rate of 91.4%.
  • Vero Beach High School earned a graduation rate of 96.4%, increasing almost 1 percentage point from the previous year's graduation rate of 95.6%, 
  • Regarding graduation rates by race ethnicity, for 2020-2021 our district achieved the following graduation rates and state rankings:
    • Black - 93.3%/state ranking: 8th
    • Hispanic - 96.9%/state ranking: 5th
    • White - 94.7%/state ranking 8th
  • Our graduation rate for Black students has increased by 13.3 percentage points since the 2016-2017 school year, with the state ranking for graduation rate of our Black students increasing from 20th in 2019-2020 to 8th in 2020-2021. Additionally, our state ranking regarding the graduation gap between our Black and White students has moved from a state ranking of 42 in 2019-2020 to 22 in 2020-2021, an increase of 20 state rankings.   
  • Our graduation rate for 2020-2021 for students with disabilities is 88%, with a state ranking of 13, while our graduation rate for economically disadvantaged students is 91.9%, with a state ranking of 7. These rankings are both improvements over the previous year.  

If you would like more information about this topic, please contact Cristen Maddux at 772-564-5527 or email at [email protected].