In any other year, graduation rates among the Oregon high school class of 2021 would have been hailed as the highest ever reported.

But record-high rates in 2020 meant that many noncharter, nonalternative public high schools statewide saw a lower percentage of students receiving their diplomas on time, in four years.

That held true among many schools in Central Oregon. But new data released by the Oregon Department of Education on Thursday has many educators and district officials satisfied, and others outright thrilled.

In a year marked by instability, when students and staff adjusted to pandemic mandates and transitioned repeatedly between remote and in-person learning, many Central Oregon schools were able to maintain high overall graduation rates. Some schools posted their highest or second-highest rates ever.

“I think it’s incredible work by our students, their families who oftentimes served as secondary teachers this last school year, and the educators that transitioned into a completely different mode of delivering instruction,” Colt Gill, head of the Oregon Department of Education, told The Bulletin.

Statewide, the graduation rate for the class of 2021 was 81%, a gain of 3% from four years ago as well as a gain of about half a percentage point from 2019.

Crook County High School tops Central Oregon graduation rates

Central Oregon’s two largest districts — Bend-La Pine Schools and Redmond School District — reported lower graduation rates compared to the 2020 class, but each reported its second-highest graduation rate ever. Culver School District also reported a slight drop of just over 2% to roughly 91.8% of seniors graduating.

But in the Jefferson County, Crook County and Sisters school districts, graduation rates increased.

Crook County High School reported the highest graduation rate in Central Oregon with a 7% leap to roughly 98.2%, a new school record. In all, 161 of the school’s 164-student senior class earned their diplomas on time.

“When I saw the outcome, I was so happy for everyone to see the payoff,” said Crook County Superintendent Sara E. Johnson. “It was really hard work, like climbing a mountain.”

Johnson said the school district developed a strategy for reaching students who were struggling or dropping out of school last year. After drawing up databases to assess barriers among at-risk students who hadn’t been at school, educators traveled across towns to help those students and entice them back into the classroom, sometimes using gift cards.

Johnson also attributed the high graduation rate to the district’s willingness to bring students back into the classroom, even while other schools stayed remote in effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Pull Quote

“It says to me that all our staff members are working extremely hard to help students succeed in special circumstances.”

— Charan Cline, superintendent of Redmond School District

Gill pointed specifically to rural schools in Jefferson and Crook counties as having shown resilience in the face of the pandemic. Jon Wiens, Oregon Department of Education’s director of accountability and reporting, also remarked on how Jefferson County’s graduation rate was especially impressive given its high poverty rates.

Madras High School Principal Brian Crook described a similar on-the-ground strategy to Crook County’s. Liaisons traveled to underserved families in Latino communities across Jefferson County and on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation, helping them get connected to online classes by checking Wi-Fi hotspots, Chromebooks and helping students engage with classwork. Madras High reported a slight drop of 0.3%, but remained above a 90% graduation rate.

“We have resilient kids who deal with a lot of adversity,” said Crook, pointing to graduation rates among the school’s Latino and Native American students, groups that reported graduation rates upwards of 94%.

Central Oregon’s largest districts report slight decline

After a year in which every noncharter, nonalternative public high school in Deschutes County saw a bump in graduation rates in 2020, all high schools in Bend-La Pine Schools saw graduation rates decline among students who graduated on time. But the district still posted its second-highest graduation rate on record.

“These rates are reflective of the collective hard work of our students and our staff,” Superintendent Steven Cook said in a press release. “We know the positive relationships staff built with students make all the difference.”

Some schools, such as Bend High School and Summit High School, saw declines of less than 2%. But La Pine High School saw its graduation rate among four-year students decline by more than 17% to 59%.

Mountain View High School’s decline was nearly 7%, to 85% of seniors graduating.

Bend-La Pine school improvement director Dave VanLoo said he was “really pleased” that last year’s graduation rate remained above pre-pandemic levels, continuing more than a decade of improving rates.

And he noted that rates among English language learners and historically underserved students improved compared to 2019.

But VanLoo said there is more to do to improve graduation rates among economically disadvantaged students. That includes La Pine High students, many of whom are on free or reduced lunches and experience higher rates of poverty and internet connectivity issues.

Redmond schools also saw slight declines, but the district posted its second-highest graduation rate ever reported. Redmond High School reported a 2.5% decline to 80%. Ridgeview High School saw a steeper drop from about 91% in 2020 to 83% in 2021.

For Redmond School District Superintendent Charan Cline, the data is promising. Cline and VanLoo each said graduation rates may have been artificially high in 2020 due to the state-issued pass/fail option, which allowed students who were passing their classes prior to the pandemic to automatically receive class credit. Gill said the two years were comparable.

With the district’s five-year graduation rate continuing an upward trend, Cline said last year’s data shows how staff helped students who may have lost touch with the value of school.

“It says to me that all our staff members are working extremely hard to help students succeed in special circumstances,” Cline said.