Yesterday, the Indiana Department of Education released graduation rate data for the 2012-2013 school year.

Locally, graduation rates did not fare so well. Out of eight area high schools, only two showed an improvement in overall graduation scores, with the other five showing notable declines and one school showing no change.

Tippecanoe Valley High School, which had a cohort size of 128 students had a total of 97 students graduate making the 2013 graduation rate 75.8 percent compared to the 77.8 percent graduation rate in 2012 and the 84.4 percent graduation rate reported in 2011.

Wawasee Community High School also saw a decline in graduation rates with a cohort size of 229 students and a total of 196 students graduating. The graduation rate for Wawasee was 85.6 percent compared to 91 percent in 2012 and 91.7 percent in 2011.

Warsaw Community High school was among the five schools to see a decline in graduation rates as well. The school reported a cohort size of 517 students with 452 students graduation, making the graduation rate 87.4 percent. The 2012 graduation rate is reported as 93.8 percent and the 2011 graduation rate was 85.5 percent.

Whitko High School shows an improvement in graduation rates reporting that 126 of 138 students graduated in 2013. The 2013 graduation rate is 91.3 percent, a significant improvement to the past two year’s graduation rates of 86.3 percent and 80.7 percent.

Triton Jr. Sr. High School saw a decline this year in graduation rates this year as well. The school reported a cohort size of 59 students with 53 graduating making the 2013 graduation rate 89.8 percent. The 2012 graduation rate was 93.8 percent and the 2011 graduation rate was 85.5 percent.

NorthWood High School was the second school to show an improvement in graduation rates this year. The school reported a cohort size of 235 students with a total of 208 graduates in 2013. The graduation rate is 88.5 percent, up from 85.1 percent in 2012 and 85.8 percent in 2011.

Lakeland Christian Academy, which reported a cohort size of 33 students, had all 33 students graduate. The 100 percent graduate rate is the same as last year’s rate which was also 100 percent. Graduation rates for years prior was not provided by the IDOE.

Manchester Jr. Sr. High School showed a decline in graduation rates as well. Though only 4 of the 95 students reported in the cohort group did not graduate, the 2013 graduation rate of 95.8 percent fell this year from the 97.8 percent reported in 2012 and the 96.4 percent reported in 2011.

Statewide, the IDOE reports that the data show that the state’s non-waiver graduation rate was 81.72 percent, up from 80.46 percent in 2012. The overall graduation rate for all schools was 88.6 percent, only slightly lower than the prior year’s rate of 88.7 percent.

According to the IDOE, non-waiver data is important for federal reporting requirements, as well as providing a more full picture of the number of students that are successfully passing their end of course assessments.

In addition to releasing statewide data, the Department released a wealth of other data, including graduation rate by school and school corporation, public and non-public schools, as well as graduation rate by race and ethnicity.

“There is some encouraging information in this release,” said Glenda Ritz, Indiana’s Superintendent of Public Instruction. “While the overall graduation rate is largely the same as it was in 2012, when you dig into the data it becomes clear that more of our students are graduating without a waiver and passing their end of course assessments.  This is a crucial step in ensuring that our students graduate from high school both college and career ready.”

For further information on graduation rates, click here.